Good, Bad and Ugly in HBCU football

The 2008 black college football season is almost over, and it's a good time to take stock of what happened - and didn't. Other than Langston (Okla.), which advanced to the third round of the NAIA playoffs, every HBCU is going overt the season that was. So will we. Without further ado, here are the highlights and lowlights: South Carolina State is the top team. You can make an argument for Tuskegee, the best HBCU program over the previous two seasons, but there's no denying the Bulldogs from Orangeburg. S.C. State went unbeaten in the MEAC, advanced to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the first time since 1982 and played three-time national champ Appalachian State tough before losing in the first round. That was the only FCS loss S.C. State took, and the Bulldogs beat every HBCU squad put across from them.

The best return to prominence belongs to Prairie View A&M. The Panthers completed their drive from joke to contenders in their fifth season under coach Henry Frazier with one of the SWAC's top defenses. A loss to West Division foe Grambling kept the Panthers out of the league title game, but that's about all that didn't go right for PV. Frazier deserves SWAC coach of the year and consideration for the Division I FCS honor as well. The swiftest fall from grace goes to Virginia Union. The Panthers, picked to finish first in the CIAA East, were 4-1 at midseason, but fell flat on their faces down the stretch to finish 5-5. First-year coach Greg Richardson was given the heave-ho to continue the carousel that started when Arrington Jones quit in the spring. Should've seen this coming, Lee Fobbs.

The North Carolina A&T Aggies didn't wait until season's end to run Fobbs off, cutting ties with the man hired with a mandate to return a proud program to relevancy. There was good news, however. A&T broke its school-record 27-game losing streak and finished 3-8. They're all in the (HBCU) family. Tennessee State, West Virginia State and Langston don't play in one of the four major HBCU conferences, yet fashioned strong seasons in their respective leagues. TSU went 8-4, 5-3 in the Division I FCS Ohio Valley Conference; WVS went 7-3, 5-3 in the Division II West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and Langston, of course, is still playing in the NAIA tournament. No love for the CIAA. The league was moved to Super Region 1 in a realignment mandated by the NCAA. The result was a disaster, with the CIAA locked out of the postseason.

Three teams - conference champ Shaw, Fayetteville State and Elizabeth City State won at least seven games, but that pesky strength of schedule doomed the CIAA when postseason invitations were extended. Note to entire league: Better start beating non-conference opponents with some regularity if you want to be taken seriously at playoff time. Pioneer Bowl on hold - again. The Division II postseason game was called off for the second time in seven years, leading to speculation its future is in doubt. Drawing fans is a perennial challenge, and the game has never been an economic juggernaut. Still, if anything can be done to save the game between CIAA and SIAC champions, it's worth the effort.