Big paycheck or big headache? HBCUs rethink playing ‘money games’
The first weeks of the college football season often include a familiar sight on the scoreboard: lopsided victories against overmatched schools.
Historically black college and university (HBCU) programs are often on the losing side of those games, but the win comes in the guaranteed money the school receives to participate.
But are the payoff and exposure worth the crushing losses or potential injuries that could affect an HBCU team? Athletic directors from HBCUs across the country are rethinking the approach.
Include Morgan State athletic director Edward Scott among that group. His approach — schedule teams in their own class: other Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponents and Group of 5 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams that also paid guarantees.
“I just brought a different business model to the HBCU landscape,’’ said Scott, whose previous college positions were at predominantly white Binghamton and George Washington, “and said, ‘We just keep throwing the same thing against the wall and hoping it sticks. And I know that this model works in other places, so why not use that model here?’ ’’
Morgan State opens its season Thursday at Bowling Green. The payout of $350,000 will equal what the Bears made in 2017 when they played Rutgers and lost 65-0.
The payout will equal a number close to what the Bears made in 2017 when they played Rutgers and lost 65-0.
The Bears follow with FCS power James Madison — a bus ride away in Harrisonburg, Virginia — and FBS team Army, both payout games.
Last season, Morgan State played at Akron and lost 41-7, “but the biggest thing was, we brought all of our players home healthy,’’ said Scott.
Morgan State does play at Northwestern next season (for $450,000), but, he added, the potential recruiting benefits in the Chicago market make it worthwhile. And, he said, “no disrespect to Northwestern, but … physically, they’re not Ohio State.’’
AT WHAT COST DO THEY PLAY?
No less than the players’ parents, as well as alumni, faculty and school officials have grown more vocal about the true price of the payout games against the power programs. The memory of Southern University’s Devon Gales, still paralyzed after breaking a vertebra on a hit during a guarantee game against Georgia early in 2015, is too fresh in some minds.
That was a worst-case scenario, but even the defenders of this scheduling philosophy, including those who know the existence of the programs and even the universities depend on the money, are fully aware that the skeptics have a point.
The money, especially the high six-figure payouts, have real impact on the athletic departments, points out Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) commissioner Charles McClelland. The exposure for a program and for future NFL prospects cannot be scoffed at, he added, using former Alabama State tackle Tytus Howard, the Houston Texans’ 2019 first-round draft pick, as an example.
“Wherever you are, if you can play, the NFL will find you,’’ McClelland said. So when Howard’s highlights and analysis came up during the NFL Network’s draft coverage, “they pulled up his film from the game at Auburn. That’s what they used to get him on the radar.’’
Auburn won that game last September 63-9; Alabama State received a reported $515,000 to play it.
“Wherever you are, if you can play, the NFL will find you. [So when Tytus Howard’s highlights and analysis came up during the NFL Network’s draft coverage], they pulled up his film from the game at Auburn. That’s what they used to get him on the radar.’’ — SWAC commissioner Charles McClelland
McClelland is pragmatic about what the 10 schools in his league do to make ends meet, and why. “As the commissioner’s office, you can’t say, ‘No, you cannot,’ ” he said. “I do not see a time when we will not play these games.” The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) also has no prohibitions against guaranteed-money games for its 12 teams.
Even with some of the blowout scores that scroll across TV screens on early-season Saturdays, McClelland added, “Scores don’t always tell the complete picture. It doesn’t reflect the quality of the experience for our student-athletes or the institution.’’
That, of course, is provided that the players make it out of the game safely. As SWAC commissioner and in his previous years as athletic director at Texas Southern and Prairie View, McClelland said he heard from the same people who decried the mismatches at other schools. As much as the players like the challenge, he said, “You have to face reality.’’
Dennis Thomas has been MEAC commissioner since 2002 and was the Hampton AD from 1990 to 2002.
“I think it does help [to have the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl and the Sept. 1 MEAC/SWAC Challenge], no question,” Thomas said. “It helps to ameliorate it, to convince our institutions to not play those games. But it’s an institutional decision to choose to play those [guarantee] games.
“These are salient points. They’re points we’ve talked about as a conference. But each program has a philosophy. Each has a goal and objective to how they want their stories told. Not everybody recognizes that by playing a Power 5 institution, there is a larger story to be told.”
Ron Prince, the longtime college and NFL coach who is beginning his first season at Howard, said his Aug. 31 opener at the Big Ten’s Maryland, a short drive from campus, can potentially “make us a tougher, more calloused team.’’
But, he added, “Every time [the opposing argument] comes up, it’s valid. How many of these kinds of games can you play, and in what sequence?”
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
The reality of the financial straits that HBCUs are in — the universities as a whole, the athletic departments and the football programs — cannot be ignored. Their budgets and revenues are a fraction of those of the Power 5 programs, and with little to no help coming from other sources, the subsidies from a game or two, or more, can go a long way.
Louis “Skip” Perkins, who had previously been athletic director at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Howard, left the athletic administrator business after Delaware State fired him at the end of the 2017 football season. He went on to obtain his doctorate in education. His dissertation included a section on guaranteed-money games, which pointed out that the major programs subsidizing HBCUs with such games “creates a level of dependency among HBCUs and ensures that these programs remain disadvantaged, compared to larger and better-funded Division I PWIs [predominantly white institutions].’’
To Perkins, playing games like the one at the University of Missouri in 2016 where Delaware State lost 79-0 was never worth it, and the phone calls and texts he started receiving immediately after that game from angry parents and alumni confirmed his feelings. He went to his superiors at Delaware State, he said, to ask not to play them anymore.
“We have one of two choices,’’ he said, speaking of his former school and others in the same predicament. “We either cut some sports if we want to operate at a true [Division I] level, or drop to Division II. Choose your poison. … You can’t have your cake and eat it too.’’
Howard quarterback Caylin Newton playing against UNLV in 2017.
ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
Howard University, under Prince’s predecessor Mike London, already has proved the effectiveness of the new, more cautious model. Its $600,000 guarantee game at UNLV in 2017 became not the anticipated blowout but a 43-40 upset that made the school the talk of the nation and put then-freshman quarterback Caylin Newton, younger brother of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, on the map.
A year later, Prairie View traveled to UNLV for a $350,000 check, and lost 46-17, a score that most programs at that level and their supporters can swallow. Still, the schedules that HBCU teams set at times are real problems, even with the power programs deleted.
Prairie View opens this season with a conference game against Texas Southern at the home stadium of Houston’s Major League Soccer team, then plays a payday game at Group of 5 contender Houston on Sept. 7. After its game at Maryland, Howard goes to Youngstown State and plays at Harvard in October, another payday game. Alabama State’s money trip this season is to in-state UAB. Grambling plays at nearby Group of 5 opponent Louisiana Tech.
School and conference officials agree that one recent development has eased the financial pressure that can entice a football program to punch too far above its weight. The fifth Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl between the SWAC and MEAC champions takes place in Atlanta in December, part of ESPN’s bowl package, and each conference is scheduled to receive $1 million.
“The Celebration Bowl has changed the story,’’ McClelland said. “A team can say, ‘I don’t have to go play at the University of Alabama because I have a team that can get to the Celebration Bowl.’ And if it’s in contention for that and falls short, if you’ve played enough of a quality competition, you have a shot at the FCS playoffs, and that means money as well.’’
Scott agrees: “Folks are bringing home 600 [thousand]; that’s a good game for me to get. To play someone in the SWAC at the end of the season, in that spotlight, can you imagine Morgan and Grambling in the Celebration Bowl? … I know what the endgame is.’’
It’s yet another motivation to steer clear of the sacrificial-lamb episodes, and of the notion that those games are a necessary evil.
Big paycheck or big headache? HBCUs rethink playing ‘money games’
The first weeks of the college football season often include a familiar sight on the scoreboard: lopsided victories against overmatched schools.
Historically black college and university (HBCU) programs are often on the losing side of those games, but the win comes in the guaranteed money the school receives to participate.
But are the payoff and exposure worth the crushing losses or potential injuries that could affect an HBCU team? Athletic directors from HBCUs across the country are rethinking the approach.
Include Morgan State athletic director Edward Scott among that group. His approach — schedule teams in their own class: other Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponents and Group of 5 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams that also paid guarantees.
“I just brought a different business model to the HBCU landscape,’’ said Scott, whose previous college positions were at predominantly white Binghamton and George Washington, “and said, ‘We just keep throwing the same thing against the wall and hoping it sticks. And I know that this model works in other places, so why not use that model here?’ ’’
Morgan State opens its season Thursday at Bowling Green. The payout of $350,000 will equal what the Bears made in 2017 when they played Rutgers and lost 65-0.
The payout will equal a number close to what the Bears made in 2017 when they played Rutgers and lost 65-0.
The Bears follow with FCS power James Madison — a bus ride away in Harrisonburg, Virginia — and FBS team Army, both payout games.
Last season, Morgan State played at Akron and lost 41-7, “but the biggest thing was, we brought all of our players home healthy,’’ said Scott.
Morgan State does play at Northwestern next season (for $450,000), but, he added, the potential recruiting benefits in the Chicago market make it worthwhile. And, he said, “no disrespect to Northwestern, but … physically, they’re not Ohio State.’’
AT WHAT COST DO THEY PLAY?
No less than the players’ parents, as well as alumni, faculty and school officials have grown more vocal about the true price of the payout games against the power programs. The memory of Southern University’s Devon Gales, still paralyzed after breaking a vertebra on a hit during a guarantee game against Georgia early in 2015, is too fresh in some minds.
That was a worst-case scenario, but even the defenders of this scheduling philosophy, including those who know the existence of the programs and even the universities depend on the money, are fully aware that the skeptics have a point.
The money, especially the high six-figure payouts, have real impact on the athletic departments, points out Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) commissioner Charles McClelland. The exposure for a program and for future NFL prospects cannot be scoffed at, he added, using former Alabama State tackle Tytus Howard, the Houston Texans’ 2019 first-round draft pick, as an example.
“Wherever you are, if you can play, the NFL will find you,’’ McClelland said. So when Howard’s highlights and analysis came up during the NFL Network’s draft coverage, “they pulled up his film from the game at Auburn. That’s what they used to get him on the radar.’’
Auburn won that game last September 63-9; Alabama State received a reported $515,000 to play it.
“Wherever you are, if you can play, the NFL will find you. [So when Tytus Howard’s highlights and analysis came up during the NFL Network’s draft coverage], they pulled up his film from the game at Auburn. That’s what they used to get him on the radar.’’ — SWAC commissioner Charles McClelland
McClelland is pragmatic about what the 10 schools in his league do to make ends meet, and why. “As the commissioner’s office, you can’t say, ‘No, you cannot,’ ” he said. “I do not see a time when we will not play these games.” The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) also has no prohibitions against guaranteed-money games for its 12 teams.
Even with some of the blowout scores that scroll across TV screens on early-season Saturdays, McClelland added, “Scores don’t always tell the complete picture. It doesn’t reflect the quality of the experience for our student-athletes or the institution.’’
That, of course, is provided that the players make it out of the game safely. As SWAC commissioner and in his previous years as athletic director at Texas Southern and Prairie View, McClelland said he heard from the same people who decried the mismatches at other schools. As much as the players like the challenge, he said, “You have to face reality.’’
Dennis Thomas has been MEAC commissioner since 2002 and was the Hampton AD from 1990 to 2002.
“I think it does help [to have the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl and the Sept. 1 MEAC/SWAC Challenge], no question,” Thomas said. “It helps to ameliorate it, to convince our institutions to not play those games. But it’s an institutional decision to choose to play those [guarantee] games.
“These are salient points. They’re points we’ve talked about as a conference. But each program has a philosophy. Each has a goal and objective to how they want their stories told. Not everybody recognizes that by playing a Power 5 institution, there is a larger story to be told.”
Ron Prince, the longtime college and NFL coach who is beginning his first season at Howard, said his Aug. 31 opener at the Big Ten’s Maryland, a short drive from campus, can potentially “make us a tougher, more calloused team.’’
But, he added, “Every time [the opposing argument] comes up, it’s valid. How many of these kinds of games can you play, and in what sequence?”
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
The reality of the financial straits that HBCUs are in — the universities as a whole, the athletic departments and the football programs — cannot be ignored. Their budgets and revenues are a fraction of those of the Power 5 programs, and with little to no help coming from other sources, the subsidies from a game or two, or more, can go a long way.
Louis “Skip” Perkins, who had previously been athletic director at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Howard, left the athletic administrator business after Delaware State fired him at the end of the 2017 football season. He went on to obtain his doctorate in education. His dissertation included a section on guaranteed-money games, which pointed out that the major programs subsidizing HBCUs with such games “creates a level of dependency among HBCUs and ensures that these programs remain disadvantaged, compared to larger and better-funded Division I PWIs [predominantly white institutions].’’
To Perkins, playing games like the one at the University of Missouri in 2016 where Delaware State lost 79-0 was never worth it, and the phone calls and texts he started receiving immediately after that game from angry parents and alumni confirmed his feelings. He went to his superiors at Delaware State, he said, to ask not to play them anymore.
“We have one of two choices,’’ he said, speaking of his former school and others in the same predicament. “We either cut some sports if we want to operate at a true [Division I] level, or drop to Division II. Choose your poison. … You can’t have your cake and eat it too.’’
Howard quarterback Caylin Newton playing against UNLV in 2017.
ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
Howard University, under Prince’s predecessor Mike London, already has proved the effectiveness of the new, more cautious model. Its $600,000 guarantee game at UNLV in 2017 became not the anticipated blowout but a 43-40 upset that made the school the talk of the nation and put then-freshman quarterback Caylin Newton, younger brother of Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, on the map.
A year later, Prairie View traveled to UNLV for a $350,000 check, and lost 46-17, a score that most programs at that level and their supporters can swallow. Still, the schedules that HBCU teams set at times are real problems, even with the power programs deleted.
Prairie View opens this season with a conference game against Texas Southern at the home stadium of Houston’s Major League Soccer team, then plays a payday game at Group of 5 contender Houston on Sept. 7. After its game at Maryland, Howard goes to Youngstown State and plays at Harvard in October, another payday game. Alabama State’s money trip this season is to in-state UAB. Grambling plays at nearby Group of 5 opponent Louisiana Tech.
School and conference officials agree that one recent development has eased the financial pressure that can entice a football program to punch too far above its weight. The fifth Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl between the SWAC and MEAC champions takes place in Atlanta in December, part of ESPN’s bowl package, and each conference is scheduled to receive $1 million.
“The Celebration Bowl has changed the story,’’ McClelland said. “A team can say, ‘I don’t have to go play at the University of Alabama because I have a team that can get to the Celebration Bowl.’ And if it’s in contention for that and falls short, if you’ve played enough of a quality competition, you have a shot at the FCS playoffs, and that means money as well.’’
Scott agrees: “Folks are bringing home 600 [thousand]; that’s a good game for me to get. To play someone in the SWAC at the end of the season, in that spotlight, can you imagine Morgan and Grambling in the Celebration Bowl? … I know what the endgame is.’’
It’s yet another motivation to steer clear of the sacrificial-lamb episodes, and of the notion that those games are a necessary evil.
Big paycheck or big headache? HBCUs rethink playing ‘money games’
