quote:

Originally posted by BigCat71:

quote:

Originally posted by outsider:
Proliferation of black colleges in the state?

HBCUs in NC- 11
HBCUs in VA- 5
HBCUs in DC- 2
HBCUs in MD- 4

That is what he meant by proliferation.

humm? off the top of my head, i counted 10 hbcu's in north carolina. which one did i miss?

a&t
wssu
nccu
fsu
jcsu
ecsu
shaw
st. aug.
bennett
livingstone

I did not mean more HBCUs in VA than in NC, I meant there are more HBCUS in VA than just NSU and Hampton. I can see where what I typed was interpreted another way.

Sports blog was making the argument that the proliferation of HBCUs in NC was a reason to hold the tournament in that state. My point was, only one Division I HBCU, A&T, is playing in the MEAC Tournament next year (and possibly 2010? can't remember when WSSU becomes eligible). Who cares there are 10 or 11 HBCUs there? Are JCSU, Shaw and St. Aug fans and alumni busting down the doors to go see the MEAC basketball tournament? Weak argument. As many have posted on this site, it doesn't make sense and has not proven to be effective for the MEAC to say, the CIAA has taken off in NC (be it Raleigh or Charlotte), let's piggy back on their success. Hasn't worked.

That would be like saying, well, you have 5 HBCUs in VA, 4 of them within an hour and a half drive of Norfolk so let's have it there. Are Union and VSU fans going to give a crap about the MEAC being in VA?

i don’t' think that's sports blog's logic at all. i think what he's saying is that in north carolina there are numerous hbcu's, most of them have significant community support and their supporters understand the hbcu culture. certain parts of virginia is very similar in that regard. i don't think ciaa alumni/supporters will storm the gates at the meac tournament, but there's an element of ciaa supporters who will attend certain meac tournament events simply because they understand and enjoy the hbcu culture…

quote:

Originally posted by oleschoolaggie:

quote:

Originally posted by BigCat71:

quote:

Originally posted by outsider:
Proliferation of black colleges in the state?

HBCUs in NC- 11
HBCUs in VA- 5
HBCUs in DC- 2
HBCUs in MD- 4

That is what he meant by proliferation.

humm? off the top of my head, i counted 10 hbcu's in north carolina. which one did i miss?

a&t
wssu
nccu
fsu
jcsu
ecsu
shaw
st. aug.
bennett
livingstone

Barber-Scotia I guess

quote:

Originally posted by outsider:
I did not mean more HBCUs in VA than in NC, I meant there are more HBCUS in VA than just NSU and Hampton. I can see where what I typed was interpreted another way.

Sports blog was making the argument that the proliferation of HBCUs in NC was a reason to hold the tournament in that state. My point was, only one Division I HBCU, A&T, is playing in the MEAC Tournament next year (and possibly 2010? can't remember when WSSU becomes eligible). Who cares there are 10 or 11 HBCUs there? Are JCSU, Shaw and St. Aug fans and alumni busting down the doors to go see the MEAC basketball tournament? Weak argument. As many have posted on this site, it doesn't make sense and has not proven to be effective for the MEAC to say, the CIAA has taken off in NC (be it Raleigh or Charlotte), let's piggy back on their success. Hasn't worked.

That would be like saying, well, you have 5 HBCUs in VA, 4 of them within an hour and a half drive of Norfolk so let's have it there. Are Union and VSU fans going to give a crap about the MEAC being in VA?

I'm sure you know that last year the MEAC had a "Bonus game" between NCCU and WSSU that caused the 8,000 attendance turnout on Championship Saturday.

In the Winston-Salem Journal yesterday a WSSU official pointed out the fact that the MEAC will do it again.

Barber-Scotia is defunct???

quote:

Originally posted by J Stowe:
Barber-Scotia is defunct???

humm? forgot about barber-scotia, but perhaps they no longer exist. i'll have to look that one up...

quote:

Originally posted by outsider:
I did not mean more HBCUs in VA than in NC, I meant there are more HBCUS in VA than just NSU and Hampton. I can see where what I typed was interpreted another way.

Sports blog was making the argument that the proliferation of HBCUs in NC was a reason to hold the tournament in that state. My point was, only one Division I HBCU, A&T, is playing in the MEAC Tournament next year (and possibly 2010? can't remember when WSSU becomes eligible). Who cares there are 10 or 11 HBCUs there? Are JCSU, Shaw and St. Aug fans and alumni busting down the doors to go see the MEAC basketball tournament? Weak argument. As many have posted on this site, it doesn't make sense and has not proven to be effective for the MEAC to say, the CIAA has taken off in NC (be it Raleigh or Charlotte), let's piggy back on their success. Hasn't worked.

That would be like saying, well, you have 5 HBCUs in VA, 4 of them within an hour and a half drive of Norfolk so let's have it there. Are Union and VSU fans going to give a crap about the MEAC being in VA?

i don't think sports blog's argument is flawed. his strongest argument is last year's championship game attendance between coppin and morgan. no disrespect to those schools but out of 8,000 plus fans, how many do you think were from maryland? i don't know the answer but i was there and i'd guess there were "easily" less than 1,500 fans from maryland. of course, most meac schools were reasonably represented at the championship game even though there were only a few for some schools. but the mass majority of those 8,000 plus fans on championship day were from the state of north carolina. i might also add that it was "literally" raining cats and dogs on championship day (there were tornado/hurricane warnings in the area). so i'm sure raleigh and the meac realizes that they probably could have attracted an additional 1,000 plus fans that day had the weather cooperated. it says a lot to have that many fans there when neither school in the championship game are remotely located close to the state of north carolina. it tells the meac that we can be successful even if the north carolina schools are not in the men's championship game. that's major!

many of the a&t fans that attended the women's championship remained for the bonus game and the men's championship game. many of the nccu and wssu fans that attended the bonus game also remained for the men's championship game. considering there will probably be another bonus game next year, the no brainer easy choice (with similar incentives) for next year's location is clearly raleigh. the last 3 years of growth all occurred in raleigh. you've heard it before, if its not broke why fix it?

so sports blog's argument is not flawed. north carolina first and foremost is a "college basketball" state and with "10" hbcu's within its borders, its also a true "hbcu" state. but even though the tournament is growing, it has not become a "can't miss event" yet. that’s why its not ready for dc yet. there's far too many other attractions in dc to grow the tournament there. it has to become a bonafide "event" to succeed in dc and if it ever becomes that, we may have a "permanent" home for the tourney in the district, the same as madison square guarden for the big east. you could probably drop the ciaa tournament in dc and it would sellout because its an event, even though bowie state is the only member school in the dc area…

I don't know there were actually 8,000 people there on championship day, but I'll go along with it. Our schools and conference are known to fudge the attendance numbers a little bit.

quote:

Originally posted by outsider:
I don't know there were actually 8,000 people there on championship day, but I'll go along with it. Our schools and conference are known to fudge the attendance numbers a little bit.

nope, i was there and the numbers were not fudged. they all may not have been there at the same time, but i'm sure the numbers weren't fudged. the rbc had control of the turnstiles, there's no way for the meac to fudge the numbers…

Are the attendee's MEAC alums or fans? Or folks looking for the next party? The tourny still needs to bring up the entertainment value to lure the northern MEAC laum to NC.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bison 4 Life,

I was also in attendance at the last MEAC tournament, and I too can vouch that there were 8000 people there and the vast majority of them were interested in the championship game. Many from where I was sitting were A&T, WSSU, and NCCU fans.

The point is that you have to engage local fans to breed tournament success. North Carolina is a great basketball state, and has proven that its fans are among the most loyal to their schools first, and to the sport second. Forget that the city has familiarity with hosting basketball tournaments (ACC, CIAA, MEAC), the MEAC has a better chance of marketing to all of the black colleges in the state and their fans if they remain in NC.

The tourney has grown from 17,000 in it's last year in Richmond to 38,000 in Raleigh. We haven't had that kind of growth anywhere else so why in the world would you want to move?

Interesting read below:

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/may/08/meac-to-...gain/?sports-college

quote:

Originally posted by HBCU Sports Blog:
I was also in attendance at the last MEAC tournament, and I too can vouch that there were 8000 people there and the vast majority of them were interested in the championship game. Many from where I was sitting were A&T, WSSU, and NCCU fans.

The point is that you have to engage local fans to breed tournament success. North Carolina is a great basketball state, and has proven that its fans are among the most loyal to their schools first, and to the sport second. Forget that the city has familiarity with hosting basketball tournaments (ACC, CIAA, MEAC), the MEAC has a better chance of marketing to all of the black colleges in the state and their fans if they remain in NC.

excellently stated...

But what makes people think those CIAA schools are coming to the MEAC tournament in droves?

I don't think its a coincidence the Mr. CIAA was stylin' and profilin' on Friday and Saturday at the MEAC.

Its funny how so many people went to the tournament and saw different things.

During the championship game I saw a lot of Morgan fans. There was a lot of excitement around the program the whole season especially after the big win against Coppin during the regular season final. Thousand of Morgan fans came down to witness Morgan win the championship. Coppin had a nice crowd, but for some reason we get very little credit.

During the women game I saw thousands of A&T fans all in their Aggie gear. But after the game a lot of them went home (some in frustration).

I saw WSSU & Central fans at the bonus game. Most were wearing their colors and sitting in the same sections. I would say it was a few hundreds but not thousands.

The MEAC tournament is unique in which a lot of fans were their school colors.
For season reason a lot of Morgan fans only came for the men’s championship game.

If anyone taped the game they could see all the Morgan colors on the home side.