It's a new year, and many of us will resolve to do something differently. Why shouldn't black college sports? Here are a few that just beg for attention. Better football officiating. Black-college officials took a beating in '08, with the SWAC

suspending an unnamed pair of whistle-blowers for their actions during the Mississippi Valley State-Jackson State game on Oct. 25 and Philip Harden permanently suspended after blowing a go-ahead touchdown at the Turkey Day Classic between Tuskegee and Alabama State. Both calls had a bearing on rankings and milestones. Jackson State won its game 29-27 and went on to the SWAC

Eastern Division title. Alabama State topped Tuskegee 17-13, ending the Tigers' 26-game winning streak and their chances of repeating as black college national champs. Everybody complains about officiating, but let's have fewer mistakes that determine the outcome of games, OK? Better Division I basketball. There's nothing wrong with Dayton, Ohio in March, unless you play hoops in the MEAC or SWAC.
That's where you can usually find the champion of either of those leagues in what amounts to a play-in game for the NCAA tournament. Based on their RPI from past seasons, neither league is going to get much respect until they start beating non-conference opponents on the regular. Here's an ide
a: play more mid-major opponents. The money isn't as good as the guaranteed beat-downs from big-money competition, but at least there's a better chance at improving the RPI.

Develop platinum programs. The best programs bring good athletes to campus, coach them up and put resources behind the product. That takes commitment and money for the long haul, something too many administrators and fans fail to understand. S.C. State football is an example of how to do it right. The Bulldogs win consistently, including the 2008 MEAC title with a competitive effort in the first round of the

Division I playoffs. Grambling is on the same level if the Tigers could actually get into the playoffs, which the SWAC championship game prevents. Among non-revenue sports, St. Augustine's track is a national program that can hold its own on an international stage. Coach George Williams has produced a string of all-Americans and Olympians, proof that the program is top of the line. Some love for non-revenue sports.

Maryland Eastern Shore won the national championship in bowling, but no one noticed outside the immediate campus community. Football and basketball may rule the barber shop trash talk, but any success - especially a national title - should be celebrated. Better support. HBCU fans may love their team, but something's not right when half the crowd at a football team goes missing after the bands do their thing at halftime. Is the music really that much better than the game itself? If so, then perhaps the on-field product is in need of an overhaul. Basketball seems to be an afterthought on many campuses, where good seats can be found from tip-off to the final horn.

The trouble with polls is that they're always open to heated debate. It's especially true in black college football. Exhibit A is the venerable Sheridan Broadcasting Network poll, which crowned Grambling State the 2008 national champion and left South Carolina State second. Exhibit B is the rival Boxtorow.com/BASN poll, which mirrored SBN.

The Tigers won 23 of 30 first-place votes in the Sheridan poll, and 12 of 16 from Boxtorow.com/BASN. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't deny polls' power to generate an argument, and these results will be debated for a while. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a Sheridan pollster for a couple of seasons in the mid-1990s, and participated in this year's Boxtorow.com survey. There's no denying Grambling (11-2) had an excellent campaign that included a 10-game winning streak and a sweep of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, including East champion Jackson State twice.

But the league overall was down in 2008, and the East Division wasn't anywhere close to the West, where Grambling and Prairie View (fourth in both polls) were head and shoulders above the crowd. I voted S.C. State (10-3) No. 1 because the Bulldogs roared through a more competitive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference with an unbeaten record. Their three losses were to Football Bowl Subdivision programs Clemson and Central Florida and Appalachian State in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. None of those games were on S.C. State's home field and the Bulldogs played three-time FCS champ Appalachian State tougher than anyone dared imagine for 50 minutes. Perhaps it all came down to final impressions.

Grambling won the SWAC title on national TV the week after S.C. State was eliminated from the FCS playoffs. Tuskegee, a Division II program and the 2007 national champ, lost to Division I rival Alabama State on Thanksgiving Day, snapping a 26-game winning streak. The Golden Tigers finished third in both polls. Don't hold your breath for the return of a black-college championship game like the ill-fated Heritage Bowl in the '90s.

Besides, it would spoil the fussing over who's top dog. Or cat.

Trouble seems to follow L.C. Cole as surely as winning football games.

The new Stillman head coach left some wreckage at Alabama State, which is in major hot water with the NCAA infractions posse over his time there. Before that, it was Tennessee State.

On Wednesday, the Division I Committee on Infractions slapped ASU on probation for five years due to major and secondary violations in its athletics programs, especially in football. The panel found a lack of institutional control, no monitoring by Cole and violations in academic fraud, recruiting, benefits, ineligible participation and financial aid. In other words, the committee found Cole and ASU turned a blind eye to violations in the athletics department before he was fired in 2003. "A revolving door of administrators at the institution, including within the department of athletics, was a prime factor in the institution's inability to establish a viable compliance program, which ultimately resulted in the institution's failure to exercise institutional control," the committee reported. In addition to probation, ASU is banned from postseason football competition next year, recruiting activities and athletic scholarships will be reduced. It also must vacate its records and submit a compliance program review.

Cole, who was hired as Division II Stillman's (Ala.) head coach last week, also must serve a two-year show-cause order. The show-cause penalty calls for increased monitoring of Cole and beefing up his rules education through NCAA-sanctioned seminars. According to the NCAA, from 1999 to 2005, ASU staff arranged for fraudulent academic credits for eight football players when their original letter grades were changed without approval from appropriate university administrators. Six athletes avoided ineligibility because of the grade changes. From 1999 to 2003, ineligible football, men's and women's basketball and baseball players received athletic scholarships, practiced, and played for the Hornets. The committee also found ineligible athletes and prospects participated in out of season workouts, which is prohibited. The school also provided meals, lodging and transportation to prospects and players, also a no-no.

At Tennessee State, Cole served a school-imposed suspension in 1998 for violations before the school sanctioned itself a year later after reporting its finding to the NCAA. Stillman, however, is sticking with Cole, who has an overall record of 48-31 at ASU and TSU.

"We did our due diligence," Stillman Athletics Director Curtis Campbell said in a statement. "We contacted the NCAA several weeks ago and were told there was no show-cause penalty on coach Cole at that time."

In addition, I contacted professionals knowledgeable of his work at prior institutions and discovered nothing that would have disqualified him from consideration. "While what happened in the past is regrettable, it doesn't change our feelings about coach Cole today," he said. "We expect him to do great things, the Stillman way." At least the Stillman folks know what they're getting.

Philip Harden has called his last Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football game. He has no choice. The league permanently suspended Harden starting with the 2009 season after he blew what should've been the go-ahead touchdown for Tuskegee in last month's Turkey Day Classic between the Division II Tigers and Division I rival Alabama State. Tuskegee quarterback Jacary Atkinson threw what appeared to be a touchdown pass to receiver Jonathan Lessa in the waning seconds. Harden, the back judge, ruled Lessa out of bounds and after consulting with field judge Vincent Swift, confirmed the original call. Video, however, showed Lessa was inbounds and in possession of the ball. Alabama State won 17-13, Tuskegee's 26-game winning streak was snapped and its chances of repeating as black college national champs took a major hit.

The SIAC folks didn't take too kindly to the foul-up, kicking Harden to the curb and issuing an apology to Tuskegee. Moses Norman, the league's supervisor of football officials, said in a statement: "My conclusion is that the ruling by the back judge was in error because visual evidence available to me contradicts his explanation regarding the player being out-of-bounds when he secured possession of the football. Thus, the play should have resulted in a touchdown for Tuskegee. Certainly, this was a game-changing ruling by the back judge." SIAC Interim Commissioner George Mategakis was blunt: "We expect complete honesty from our officials at all times. Anything else is simply unacceptable. Our supervisor of football officials, Dr. Norman spends a considerable amount of time making sure our officials approach each game with the utmost importance and significance. To miss a call like this will not be tolerated. The balance and result of a sporting contest should not be decided by officials, instead it should be decided by the players."

No one said officiating was easy, and no one suggests Harden intentionally robbed Tuskegee, but black college football has struggled with complaints like this in recent years. While there are many good officials, Harden is the latest to be made an example of for messing up a crucial call. "We have very high expectations of all our officials and we expect them to call a fair game every time they step on to the field," Mategakis said. "We in no way expect or think that our teams should win every single game they play when facing out of conference competition, but we certainly expect a fair and just approach every single time."

Bowie State is in the market for a football coach while Stillman has hired a familiar name to lead its program. Bowie State Athletics Director Derek Carter and head coach Mike Lynn reached agreement on Lynn's resignation from the Bulldogs after five seasons and a 26-25 record, tying him for the most wins at BSU. Lynn's best season was 2005 when the Bulldogs went 8-4, reached the CIAA championship game and advanced to the Pioneer Bowl.

In Tuscaloosa, Ala., former Tennessee State and Alabama State coach L.C. Cole has been hired at Stillman. He comes from Texas Southern, where he was defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. "It's a great opportunity for me to come back to the state of Alabama and to coach at Stillman," Cole said. "Stillman is known for its competitiveness. I look forward to getting Stillman back into that winning spirit. I plan to start recruiting right way to get the program on a winning track." Cole, who has 26 years of collegiate coaching experience, is Stillman's third coach since the school brought back football in 1999.

But Cole's a winner with a 48-31 record in seven collegiate seasons at Tennessee State and Alabama State. Cole also earned a pair of Ohio Valley Conference titles at TSU, a fact not lost on the committee that unanimously recommended his hire. "We hired the best coach available. We are excited about bringing coach Cole to Stillman," Athletics Director Curtis Campbell said. "His experience separated him from the pack. ...That speaks to his caliber of coaching and his ability to turn programs around."

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.

It's been a long wait between playoff appearances for S.C. State, but the Bulldogs are on their way. After a 26-year absence, S.C. State clinched the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship with a 32-0 win over Morgan State Saturday.

The Bulldogs earned a ticket to the Football Championship Subdivision tournament in the process. S.C. State, (9-2, 7-0 MEAC) which last earned a playoff bid in 1982, clearly is the league's - and perhaps black college football's - top team in 2008. In 2004, S.C. State tied Hampton for first, but lost the head-to-head meeting and automatic playoff bid, one of several near-misses during head coach Buddy Pough's six seasons on the Orangeburg, S.C., campus. "It's just a great feeling," Pough said. "Can you imagine being so close for all the six years I've been here and we finally got it done."

The early part of the college basketball season is reserved for pay-to-play games. You know the type: Mid-major Division I programs take guarantees for a road game and beat-down against a top-tier opponent.

There are arguments for and against the practice. Proponents say financially strapped schools can make a quick buck and toughen up for the conference campaign. Critics say taking whippings for cash is mentally and physically draining. HBCUs are among the busiest travelers.

No one touches Coppin State for a killer schedule. The Eagles play at Purdue, Kansas, Dayton, Wisconsin and Syracuse before Christmas. Then it's off to the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii Nov. 27-30. Then it's off to Big 12 country with games at Oklahoma and Missouri before jumping into MEAC competition.

North Carolina Central, an independent playing its second Division I season, opens at No. 21 Wake Forest on Nov. 14 in Winston-Salem, N.C. That's the Eagles' only appearance in the Tar Heel State until December. NCCU, which went 4-26 last season, play their first six games on the road, covering 8,166 miles.

After Wake Forest, the Eagles go to Kent State on Nov. 17, Florida Gulf Coast on Nov. 20 and Tulsa on Nov. 25, before playing in the South Padre Island (Texas) Invitational on Nov. 28-29. NCCU's first home game is Dec. 3 against High Point. Morgan State, the preseason pick to win the MEAC, play five of its first six on the road, starting with LaSalle Nov. 15 in Philadelphia and ending with the Glen Wilkes Classic in Orlando, Fla. Nov. 21-23 against Marshall, Utah and Wisconsin-Green Bay on consecutive days.

MSU is capable of coming out of that stretch with some wins, which would underscore the preseason expectations in Baltimore. Travel doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. Grambling State plays Morehead State and The Citadel Nov. 29-30 in Cancun, Mexico along with money games at New Mexico Nov. 20 and Oklahoma State Nov. 23.

Albany State is the only Division II HBCU playing postseason football in 2008. The Golden Rams (7-3), who finished second to Tuskegee in the SIAC race, will play Tusculum (8-3) in Greenville, Tenn., Nov. 15 in the first round of the national playoffs.

Tuskegee, which is 10-0, typically doesn't participate in the postseason in order to play the Turkey Day Classic against Division I rival Alabama State. Albany State, however, was ranked fifth in Super Regional 2, one spot ahead of the cut off point for the playoffs. The CIAA got absolutely no love in Super Regional 1, where the league was moved this season. A week ago, three CIAA schools - Fayetteville State, Shaw and Elizabeth City - were in the top 10.

But after Shaw beat Elizabeth City for its second straight championship, FSU and ECSU fell out of the rankings and the Bears were outside looking in at No. 10. Critics of the CIAA championship game insist its elimination would give one or perhaps two teams a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

Of course, beating more non-conference teams would help, too. With this year's Pioneer Bowl cancelled, Shaw and Tuskegee don't even get a postseason parting gift. That means Tuskegee, a Pioneer regular, is finished after Thanksgiving. The entire CIAA has to lick its wounds until next August.

The housecleaning is underway in CIAA football. Greg Richardson and Daryl McNeill are the first casualties of the coaching purge launched by league schools this week, paying the ultimate price for underachieving programs. Richardson was cut loose at Virginia Union after one season. His contract was not renewed after a 5-5 campaign with a team expected to win the CIAA championship.

The Panthers started 4-1 and looked capable of winning a second straight East Division title, but were undone by inconsistency down the stretch. Richardson, a former defensive coordinator, was promoted to head coach in March after Arrington Jones resigned.

Richardson, a former head coach at CIAA rival Livingstone, was an assistant coach for five seasons at Virginia Union, including assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 2006-07 seasons. He was also a Panthers assistant from 1997-98. Six days after closing a second straight 3-7 campaign, JCSU President Ronald Carter and Athletics Director Steve Joyner announced McNeill's ouster, effective immediately. McNeill was 23-38 in six seasons with the Golden Bulls over two stints. His second tour at the school produced a 13-28 record over the last four seasons. McNeill, who was also associate athletics director, was criticized for the offseason promotion of Rod Robinson to defensive coordinator - his first job on that side of the ball - from tight ends coach and the Bulls' slide to the bottom of the CIAA.

The high point of McNeill's stay at JCSU was 2006 when the Bulls went 7-4 with a berth in the Pioneer Bowl.

He went 10-10 from 1995-96 at JCSU before leaving for Savannah State. University officials say they will begin an immediate search for McNeill's replacement. The new coach will be free to hire his own assistants.