UNDER THE BANNER
What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
SAY WHAT?: The first group of players selected for the inaugural I-AA College Football All-Star Classic
scheduled for Dec. 30 in Fort Lauderdale includes just
one player each from the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference
and the Southwestern Athletic
Con-ference, the two black college conferences that compete on
the NCAA Div. I-AA level. Florida A&M defensive back
Levy Brown and Grambling State wide receiver
Tramon Douglas were the only black college
players out of 50 selected by a committee of coaches,
adminis-trators and media from the 13 I-AA conferences said to be participating in the game. The MEAC
and SWAC are among the participating conferences. The
list includes 11 players from the Big Sky Conference,
seven each from the Gateway and Southland Conferences and
six each from the Atlantic 10 and the Southern
Conference. Though other MEAC and SWAC players could be
selected from among another 50 to be named in October, their
glaring omissions from the initial list has prompted a strong
response from at least one conference official. The lack
of black college players on the list is especially hard
to understand with the teams being named for black
college legends, Eddie Robinson, the
48-year Grambling State head coach, and Walter
Payton, the late Jackson State and NFL running back
star.
BVQ ARRIVES: A story on Black College band battles from Don Roberts, executive band consultant for the hit movie, "Drumline,' is the cover story for the Black Voices Quarterly (BVQ) 2003 Black College Football Special Magazine out this week. Herb White profiles black college players plying their trade in NFL Europe and the Arena Leagues while Roscoe Nance takes a critical look at Florida A&M's jump from the black college ranks to Div. IA. Nance also takes a look at the bumper crop of quarterbacks in black college football this year while Michael Hurd chronicles how some black college flava has been put into Madden NFL Football. Insightful previews on all 49 football-playing black college teams and a lot of great photos are in BVQ.
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.