Also, many congratulations to North Carolina Central University and the Eagle Nation on rejoining the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Already a well-kept secret hidden in the long shadows of nearby big-name and much more expensive UNC Chapel Hill and Duke for much of its history as many black and white North Carolina and Southeastern professionals, social and political elites have taken advantage of a low cost high-quality education, especially at the very-much underrated schools of law and finance (Chapel Hill, NC Mayor Kevin Foy, Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and many NC governors and big-time NC/SE lawyers among them) NCCU has continued to make great strides in recent years in athletics and, most importantly, academics. Central was supposed to rejoin the MEAC much sooner, but its membership bid and the process that accompanies it was almost put on hold when NC A&T refused to vote with the rest of the MEAC to allow NCCU back into the conference as a reaction to the aftermath of an extremely violent bench-clearing brawl during a football game between the two heated rivals in 2007 as the approval of all existing member schools are needed to admit any new member institutions. I’m happy that A&T finally decided to vote to allow Central back into the fold. NCCU needs the MEAC just as much as the MEAC needs NCCU and the rest of its member and affiliate institutions to survive and advance their goals as critically important educational entities. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: HBCUs like NCCU, NC A&T and those that comprise the MEAC, the SWAC, the CIAA, the SIAC and other affiliated institutions were giving African-Americans access to higher education and professional life long before big-name mainstream schools like UNC and Duke would give them the time of day. There was a time not all that long ago when the only way that an African-American could get onto either of the campuses of a Duke, a UNC and the like was either to be a low-wage menial employee or a high-performing athlete. While HBCUs like NCCU have advanced their missions far enough to now attract the kinds of elite students that are a staple of the student bodies at a Duke or UNC, HBCUs like NCCU still give chances to students of all colors that wouldn’t get a first look, much less a second look, by the admissions committees at a Duke or UNC. Despite the acceptance of African-Americans into the mainstream of American life, HBCUs still serve a vital role in providing educational opportunities to those who wouldn’t necessarily get those opportunities elsewhere.

I vote to stay a playoff league.