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Post by aggiejazz on Apr 8, 2009 7:40:29 GMT -5
from MEAC website
HISTORY
In 1969, a bold ad hoc group of innovators long associated with intercollegiate athletics met in Durham, N.C., to discuss the feasibility of organizing a new conference. Dissected from these discussions, a steering and planning committee was formed to fully investigate the idea, present a detailed report with recommendations to interested collegiate institutions, and then construct a workshop to outline proposals.
After adopting a program, seven institutions (Delaware State College, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University and South Carolina State College) agreed to become the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Its major objective was to establish, organize and supervise an intercollegiate athletic program among a compact group of educational institutions of high academic standards and with a sound philosophy of co-curricular activities.
The conference was confirmed in 1970, kicking off its first season of competition in football in 1971.
In 1978, a milestone was reached when the MEAC selected Kenneth A. Free to be its first full-time commissioner. He had been preceded by three interim (part-time) commissioners: Dr. Leroy Walker (1971-74); who later had the distinction of serving as the President of the United States Olympic Committee, the late Earl Mason (1974-75) and the late Dr. James Young (1975-78).
Kenneth A. Free served the conference for 18 years before stepping down in 1995. In 1996, Charles S. Harris was named commissioner and served in the capacity until April 2002. Longtime MEAC administrator Brenda H. McCoy served two stints as Interim Commissioner, one in 1996 and again in 2002. On September 1, 2002, Dr. Dennis E. Thomas was named the commissioner and has served in the position for six years.
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MEAC highlights:
1974 - Morgan State won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship
1979 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. AIAW preceeding NCAA for women's basketball.
1982 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship
2008 - Maryland Eastern Shore won the NCAA Division I Women's Bowling National Championship.
2009 - MEAC Women's Bowling, MEAC had four teams ranked in the same week in the top 20 for Division I Women's Bowling and had 3 teams in the same period ranked in the top ten.
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Post by aggiejazz on Apr 8, 2009 7:54:44 GMT -5
FAMU was not in the MEAC when it won the inaugural Division I-AA Football National Championship. FAMU, now and then a member of the MEAC, reached the semi-finals in 2000, I think, but the accomplishment was taken away for NCAA violations. No MEAC team has gotten past the second round of the playoffs.
In men's basketball there have only been 3 wins, total, in the NCAA Div I since being invited in 1981 and no wins in the second round. The MEAC women have no wins at all in the NCAA Div I basketball playoffs.
Buthune Cookman made it out of the NCAA regionals in softball and then the coach was quickly signed by ACC Maryland.
There are no other second round wins by a MEAC member for any of the other team sports.
I guess you can mark 1980 as the MEAC being a full fledge NCAA Division I conference.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 8:02:38 GMT -5
39 years, four highlights.
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Post by Bigboy on Apr 8, 2009 8:19:18 GMT -5
Did A&T not win the AIAW national softball championship back in the 70's, I forget the exact year? I think it was before women sports were a part of the NCAA.
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Post by aggiejazz on Apr 8, 2009 8:25:52 GMT -5
39 years, four highlights. Opps, I forgot one, AIAW outdoor track and field, see post above. I put in the bowling ranking because I follow a little bit of MEAC bowling. Bigboy, the AIAW softball championship is not mentioned on the MEAC website.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 8, 2009 10:33:56 GMT -5
39 years, four highlights. yeah, but how many "national" championships did a&t win when it was d2? and we were d2 for how many years?
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 10:51:19 GMT -5
from MEAC website------------------------------------------------------------------------------ emphasis added for oleschoolaggie [glow=red,2,300]MEAC [/glow]highlights: 1974 - Morgan State won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship 1979 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. AIAW preceeding NCAA for women's basketball. 1982 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship 2008 - Maryland Eastern Shore won the NCAA Division I Women's Bowling National Championship. 2009 - MEAC Women's Bowling, MEAC had four teams ranked in the same week in the top 20 for Division I Women's Bowling and had 3 teams in the same period ranked in the top ten. Forgive me for wondering, but what does that have to do with how many championships A&T won as an underfunded d-2? If anything it shows none of us belong in d-1. But I guess if you count the softball championship, we won one. I wonder how many times we were the worst in a sport in d-2. I can name three separate sports where we've nationally brought up the rear in the last ten years. Can an English major on here tell me what the root word of competition is?
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 8, 2009 11:27:18 GMT -5
To me the bottom line is in d-1 we are sorry as hell. We have always been and will get worse as the economy tanks and we have revolving doors at the University for key personnel. If you ain't heard of A&T and you see a score scroll across the screen (usually with us on the losing side) you say "I ain't know AT&T had a school." The numbers are stacked against us yet we continue to spit into the wind. I said it before and I'll say it again, if we moved to d-2 half the MEAC would come a day later. All the ciaa schools would line up to see us play. We'd probably drastically increase ticket sales for that reason, albeit it may or may not be our own supporters. We are surrounded by d-1 schools in a state full of them. When you are in that sort of situation you have to do something better than the competition, i.e. outspend the comp. We clearly aren't doing that. That's why we haven't seen sustained success since Corbett. Who has the overall worst losing record in the men's ncaa touney? That was a trivia question I saw on ESPN during March Madness the last time we went. Although there are a number of teams that never won a game, only one had been around ten times and hadn't made a dent. Aggie Pride? Pride goeth before the fall. I'm not inviting arguments because I heard all the mess people who think we should be in d-1 have to say. Their arguments are NEVER based in logic and are ALWAYS emotional. A few years ago I asked for just one logical statement that showed a benefit of us being in d-1 and the response was that we were included on some college football game on x-box. Sad. I drove past Finley stadium earlier today. It was beautiful. I didn't even wonder if we could get there. If you have to ask the significance of Finley stadium then we might as well be worried about playing in Braly Stadium. say what you want, but i'd bet you we're better nationally known as a d1 than we ever were as a d2. and hbcu's aren't the only d1 institutions that have virtually no chance of winning a national championship in basketball. there are several pwc d1 conferences that are on the same level as the meac. i guess those pwc's should be d2 also, huh? what about "non-bcs" d1 football schools like utah that went undefeated? they have about as much of a chance to win a national championship as we do at the fcs level. i guess they should drop to the fcs level, huh? there are numerous pwc's at the d1 level that will never win a national championship or even a first round ncaa basketball game for that matter. i guess they all should drop to d2 also, huh? and what about d2 hbcu's that have "never" won a d2 national championship in football? not a single hbcu has "ever" won an ncaa d2 national championship in football. so now i guess all the d2 hbcu's should drop to d3, right? when we were d2, what did that level of play do to enhance a&t as an institution? whether academically, athletically, or otherwise? it did absolutely nothing for our facilities and we got very little, if any, "national" exposure. i mean, what is there to gain by dropping to d2 except less costs, less competition, and less of a national profile? d2 is just a cheaper, less prestigious, less competitive level of college athletics. and even success at that level is not guaranteed, we still have to play by the same rules as everybody else. for us to drop to d2 at this stage is basically the same as being a "quitter". we quit d1 because we're too lazy to do what's necessary to meet the challenges of d1 athletics. so we'll just cop out for something that's "easier". that's like a big kid who can't beat anyone his own size, so he proceeds to pick on a smaller kid that he feels he can beat. now where's the aggie pride in that attitude? when i was a student at a&t, i was taught that i was as capable as any other student in the country. when i went on co-operative education, it was instilled in me that i can perform as well as any student from any major pwc. when i co-opped with general motors and the federal aviation administration as an a&t student, i had to perform my job along side students from ucla, michigan, and ohio state. i could have easily taken the easy way out by "declining" my offer to work for those corporations because i was afraid to compete with students from big time schools. but i didn't. i did just the opposite. i took pride in myself and my institution, and i performed as well if not better than my pwc peers. that's the same attitude a&t should have at the d1 level. we shouldn't be afraid to compete with the big time schools. we shouldn't tuck our tails in fear of competing with the big time schools. what if our lady aggies basketball team had that same attitude against ecu and unc charlotte? man, forget that d2 stuff. dropping down to d2 is for quitters who are afraid to compete! its for bullies who are afraid to pick on someone their own size...
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 8, 2009 11:38:30 GMT -5
from MEAC website------------------------------------------------------------------------------ emphasis added for oleschoolaggie [glow=red,2,300]MEAC [/glow]highlights: 1974 - Morgan State won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship 1979 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. AIAW preceeding NCAA for women's basketball. 1982 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship 2008 - Maryland Eastern Shore won the NCAA Division I Women's Bowling National Championship. 2009 - MEAC Women's Bowling, MEAC had four teams ranked in the same week in the top 20 for Division I Women's Bowling and had 3 teams in the same period ranked in the top ten. Forgive me for wondering, but what does that have to do with how many championships A&T won as an underfunded d-2? If anything it shows none of us belong in d-1. But I guess if you count the softball championship, we won one. I wonder how many times we were the worst in a sport in d-2. I can name three separate sports where we've nationally brought up the rear in the last ten years. Can an English major on here tell me what the root word of competition is? the point i'm making is that no matter what level we compete at, the same folks will be making the decisions and the results will be the same. in recent years, we have performed poorly at the d1 level "not because" we are incapable of succeeding. we've performed poorly because of poor leadership. so to move down to d2 will be easier and cheaper, but the results won't change that much because we'll have the same leadership. we'd just take the facilities that we acquired as a result of competing at the d1 level and use it to our advantage at the d2 level "temporarily" until our facilities are outdated. then we'll be on the same boat as the other d2 hbcu's, indefinitely...
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 12:04:45 GMT -5
The point I'm making is under the guise of competing and not being quitters, we are putting underfunded programs out in losing situations year after year. We have fielded the worst wbb team, mbb team, and football team in the entire nation in the past ten years. That's not competing. It's embarassing. If a move to d-2 would coincide with a massive budget cut, I'd be all for cutting athletics altogether. If we could move to d-2 and keep our budget near where it is now (coincidentally a decent budget for a d-2 school) and properly support our programs to ensure success and properly publicize the success, nobody would notice the difference. As usual, jazzy said it best: Div I is strictly a personal pride for some Aggies and only some as you can tell by the amount of donation the athletic department receives. As far as business support, I guess some of y'all couldn't see the scoreboard blank placards the last 4 years or walked into Corbett's Gym saw the few corporate signs. Corporate support has been minimum and will be worse this year. Put A&T in Div II come fall of this year and wait three years. I guarantee, you will not be able to tell the difference in support, in fan attendance and financial giving, between 2009 and 3 years later in 2012.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 12:05:46 GMT -5
Have we ever won a meac all sports trophy? Where do we stack up against the other worst d-1 schools in one of the worst d-1 conferences?
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Post by Aggie One on Apr 8, 2009 12:09:19 GMT -5
One.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 12:10:48 GMT -5
Ugh
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 8, 2009 12:30:58 GMT -5
from MEAC website------------------------------------------------------------------------------ emphasis added for oleschoolaggie [glow=red,2,300]MEAC [/glow]highlights: 1974 - Morgan State won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship 1979 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. AIAW preceeding NCAA for women's basketball. 1982 - SC State won the AIAW Division II Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship 2008 - Maryland Eastern Shore won the NCAA Division I Women's Bowling National Championship. 2009 - MEAC Women's Bowling, MEAC had four teams ranked in the same week in the top 20 for Division I Women's Bowling and had 3 teams in the same period ranked in the top ten. Forgive me for wondering, but what does that have to do with how many championships A&T won as an underfunded d-2? If anything it shows none of us belong in d-1. But I guess if you count the softball championship, we won one. I wonder how many times we were the worst in a sport in d-2. I can name three separate sports where we've nationally brought up the rear in the last ten years. Can an English major on here tell me what the root word of competition is? and you might want to add that howard university won a "d1 ncaa national soccer championship" in 1975. the meac has won "2" division 1 "national championships", so no one can argue that the meac is solely a token d1 conference. not every d1 conference in the country can make that claim. so its been proven that hbcu's can win a national championship at the d1 level. perhaps that defines the root word of competition a little better...
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 12:32:34 GMT -5
I went to Howard. I know they won it. I also know that it was stripped from them for playing ineligible players.
Forgive me for not being emotionally invested in being d-1. I'd rather we be competitive and spend wisely at the same time.
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