Disparity in college athletics is nothing new. College football just has shinier and more glaring examples of it.
For every Texas locker-television-nameplate, there’s a program with facilities out-done by many powerhouse high schools.
That money divide, thanks to mainly to huge television deals, becomes even worse when the comparison showcases teams out of the SEC and Big 10 to historically black colleges and universities, like Grambling State whose facilities were so decrepit that athletes boycotted.
“Mid-major schools have challenges in meeting their financial needs. I don’t think that is just something that is principally an issue for historically black colleges (and universities),” said Tennessee State athletic director, Teresa Phillips.
While Tennessee State is a HBCU, the program plays in the Ohio Valley Conference, a true mid-major conference.
Guarantee games, aka “money games,” is one way those programs fill that gap.
This is an important practice across the FCS, but for the 24 HBCUs in Division I football that are often among the poorest public athletic departments it’s even more so. In the 2015-2016 USA TODAY financial report, seven of the eight poorest public athletic departments in Division I were either HBCUs or majority black schools.
Now Vanderbilt has made it a mission to create more opportunities for HBCU programs. read more
