Black college football national championship
The black college football national championship is a mythical national championship won by the best historically black college (HBCU) football team(s) in the United States. There has been some criticism of this title on the grounds that the schools in the various polls compete in different levels of competition (e.g., National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II vs. the FCS level of Division I).[1] Also, HBCUs have successfully challenged majority white schools for football championships for decades now, within the framework of both NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competition; this includes Associated Press, United Press International, NCAA, and NAIA-sponsored titles for the 1962, 1973, 1978, 1990, 1992, and 1995 seasons, as well as runner-up finishes in 1963, 1983, 1991, 1994, and 2012.
Initially, starting in 1920, an HBCU national champion was simply declared by the Pittsburgh Courier at the end of the season. Others more directly affiliated with the schools also made their own attempts to crown a champ, coordinating their efforts under the auspices of the Champion Aggregation of All Conferences.[2] However, HBCUs eventually began to gravitate over to the NAIA because it offered numerous athletic competition options while also openly welcoming schools of varying demographic backgrounds as members.[3] At present most HBCUs are members of the NCAA.
Attempts have been made over the years to determine a non-mythical national champion with an actual football game contested by leading teams among HBCUs throughout the United States. The Orange Blossom Classic was often billed as such a game, but Florida A&M, as its annual host, was guaranteed a spot in this game and was not always of national championship-caliber each year that it was played between 1933 and 1978. The Pelican Bowl, a bowl game that attempted to match up the conference champions from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference, was one such example, but this venture failed to draw enough attendance and lasted only a few years in the 1970s. Similarly, the Heritage Bowl was played in the 1990s featuring teams from the MEAC and SWAC, but this bowl game has not been held since 1999 and was often snubbed by the conference champions in lieu of the NCAA's then-Division I-AA playoffs. The two conferences began negotiations in 2010 to create a successor called the "Legacy Bowl" with hopes for it to begin with the 2011 postseason, but it failed to materialize.[4] However, in 2015 the first Celebration Bowl will be played pitting the champions of both conferences.
While black national champions have been crowned regularly in football for nearly a century, the concept has never fully caught on with other sports. Men's basketball briefly had a similar movement. In 1941 Southern, coached by the famed football coach Ace Mumford, defeated North Carolina Central, 48–42, in the National Invitational Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament. This tournament was held because the National Invitational Tournament would not invite majority black schools at the time. NCCU was also named national champions that same year by the Associated Negro Press.[5] In late 1947 National Championships, Inc. announced that they would soon begin hosting a postseason basketball tournament for HBCUs.[6] Jet magazine later sponsored an HBCU basketball poll.[7] In much more recent years, various websites have named champions for basketball and baseball. BlackCollegeBaseball.com,for example, has named several black national champions for baseball, including North Carolina A&T and Southern jointly in 2005 and Prairie View in 2006. Bethune-Cookman also defeated Alcorn State in a special postseason series in 2011.
Contents
Selectors
Selector | Name | Seasons | Eligible teams |
---|---|---|---|
"Sheridan Poll"[8] PC NPC SBN AURN |
Jake Gaither National Championship Trophy[9] Pittsburgh Courier New Pittsburgh Courier Sheridan Broadcasting Network American Urban Radio Networks |
1920–present[8] 1920–1965 1966–1978 1979–1990 1991–present |
all HBCU teams |
ADW | Atlanta Daily World & 100% Wrong Club–W. A. Scott II Memorial Trophy (1953–1992,[10] 2010);[11] Coca-Cola National Historical Black College Football Championship Award (1993–2009)[10] | 1953[12]–2010[11] (1970 and 2010 champions are not available) |
all HBCU teams |
AFRCB | Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl | 2015–present | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
ANP | Associated Negro Press & Pigskin Huddle | 1948–1960 (1955–1957 champions are not available) |
all HBCU teams |
ASW | American Sports Wire | 1990–2013[13] | NCAA Division I–FCS Subdivision HBCU teams only[14] |
B-CP | Boxtorow–Coaches Poll | 2009–present[15] | all HBCU teams |
B-MP | Boxtorow–Media Poll | 2007–present[15] | all HBCU teams |
BAA | Baltimore Afro-American | 1947[16]–1948,[17] 1953[18] | all HBCU teams |
BCSP | Black College Sports Page | 1994–present[19] (1994–1999 champions are not available) |
all HBCU teams |
CAAC | Champion Aggregation of All Conferences[2] & William Lawrence "Paul" Jones | 1921–1949[19] (1921–1949 champions are not available) |
all HBCU teams |
CB | Chocolate Bowl | 1935[20] | all HBCU teams[20] |
CC | Colored Championship | 1920[21] | all HBCU teams |
DCCC-M | Dr. Cavil's Classic Cuts & SWAC Page Network–Major Division Poll | 2002[22]–present (2002 champion is not available) |
NCAA Division I–FCS Subdivision HBCU teams only |
DCCC-MM | Dr. Cavil's Classic Cuts & SWAC Page Network–Mid-Major Division Poll | 2002–present (2002–2003 champions are not available) |
NCAA Division II and NAIA HBCU teams only |
HB | Heritage Bowl | 1994 * | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
HBCUS-PFP | HBCUSports.com–Playoff Fan Poll | 2014–present | all HBCU teams[23] |
HBCUS-UP | HBCUSports.com–Ultimate Poll | 2015–present | all HBCU teams[24] |
HSRN-I | Heritage Sports Radio Network–Conaway Cup (for Division I teams)[25] | 2011–present[25] | NCAA Division I–FCS Subdivision HBCU teams only[25] |
HSRN-II | Heritage Sports Radio Network–Conaway Cup (for Division II[25] and NAIA[26] teams) | 2011–present[25] | NCAA Division II[25] and NAIA[26] HBCU teams only |
J | Jet | 1973–1987 | all HBCU teams |
JM | Johnny McLendon (used the Dickinson System) | 1953[18] | all HBCU teams |
LAFCF | Los Angeles Football Classic Foundation–Eddie G. Robinson Trophy[27] | 1988[27] | all HBCU teams |
MBN | Mutual Black Network | 1972–1977 (1973–1974 and 1976 champions are not available) |
all HBCU teams[28] |
NB | National Bowl | 1947[29] | all HBCU teams[6] |
PB | Pelican Bowl | 1972, 1975 * | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
PCW | Pigskin Club of Washington—William G. "Billy" Coward Award[30] | 2006–present[30] | all HBCU teams |
"Vulcan Bowl" SB VB |
Steel Bowl Vulcan Bowl |
1940–1941 ** 1940[31] 1941[32] |
SIAC champion and "all members of conferences allied with the SIAC" only[32] |
Notes: *—the Pelican Bowl (played 1972 and 1974–75) and Heritage Bowl (played 1991–99) were intended as black national championship games matching the outright champions or top-seeded co-champions of the MEAC and SWAC conferences, but in practice the top seeds often declined their automatic bids to participate in the NCAA playoffs instead—only the 1972, 1975, and 1994 games matched the top seeds of both conferences as originally intended; **—the Steel Bowl/Vulcan Bowl (played after the 1940–48 and 1951 seasons) are known to have been promoted as black national championship games after the 1940 and 1941 seasons
Yearly national championship selections
National championships by school
School | National championships | Seasons |
---|---|---|
Tennessee State | 16 | 1946, 1947, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2012, 2013 |
Florida A&M | 14 | 1938, 1942, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1977, 1978, 1998, 2001 |
Grambling State | 14 | 1955, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1992, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008 |
Tuskegee | 12 | 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2015 |
Southern | 11 | 1948, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1960, 1975, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2003 |
Central State | 8 * | 1948, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 |
Morgan State | 7 | 1933, 1937, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1949, 1967 |
South Carolina State | 7 | 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1994, 2008, 2009 |
Hampton | 6 | 1922, 1985, 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006 |
Howard | 6 | 1920, 1925, 1926, 1987, 1993, 1996 |
Prairie View A&M | 6 | 1953, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1964, 2009 |
Alcorn State | 5 | 1968, 1969, 1974, 1984, 2014 |
North Carolina A&T | 5 | 1951, 1968, 1990, 1999, 2015 |
Bethune-Cookman | 4 | 2002, 2010, 2012, 2013 |
Wiley | 4 | 1921, 1928, 1932, 1945 |
Jackson State | 3 | 1962, 1985, 1996 |
Morris Brown | 3 | 1940, 1941, 1951 |
Virginia State | 3 | 1936, 1952, 2014 |
Winston-Salem State | 3 | 2011, 2012, 2013 |
Alabama State | 2 | 1991, 2011 |
Albany State | 2 | 2004, 2010 |
Bluefield State | 2 | 1927, 1928 |
Langston | 2 | 1939, 1941 |
North Carolina Central | 2 | 2005, 2006 |
Talladega | 2 | 1920, 1921 |
Texas Southern | 2 | 1952, 2010 |
Virginia Union | 2 | 1923, 1981 |
Arkansas–Pine Bluff | 1 | 2012 |
Delaware State | 1 | 2007 |
Kentucky State | 1 | 1934 |
Lincoln-Missouri | 1 | 1952 |
Norfolk State | 1 | 2011 |
Paul Quinn | 1 | 1924 |
Shaw | 1 | 1947 |
Texas College | 1 | 1935 |
West Virginia State | 1 | 1936 |
Wilberforce | 1 | 1931 |
Note: *—total does not include 1995 season in which Central State won NAIA Division I Champion Bowl National Championship; Southern of NCAA Division I-AA still won consensus black national championship
References
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