It's not a good idea for a coach to put the cart before the horse.
It was a slap in the face to South Carolina State University and HBCU football when Deion, Shedeur, and Travis Hunter were put on the cover of SportsIllustrated. The team that lost the Celebration Bowl was highlighted by the publication.
The winners are the ones who get the spoils. For the second year in a row, Deion Sanders lost the most important game on the schedule to a team from the Carolinas.
While this may come as a shock to many of you that became overnight scholars on the inner workings of HBCU culture and athletics, you should know that HBCU football has been around for a long time. Six of the seven times the champion has come from the Carolinas, the Celebration Bowl has been held in Atlanta. The Aggies from North Carolina A&T dominated in three of the last four years. South Carolina State dominated Jackson State andSanders last year. The Tigers lost to North Carolina Central in overtime. The MEAC team representative has been from the Carolinas in every edition of the bowl.
You scratched your head after reading that last paragraph. You are wondering how you didn't know that the Carolinas and the MEAC dominated HBCU football in the era of "Coach Prime"
You didn't care in the first place.
The conversations about HBCU culture and athletics were hijacked by the national press, debates on social media and the fact that the new Jackson State coach was a black man. People who had never been to an HBCU campus, had never cared about the SWAC, MEAC, or the legacy of the Tigers, now knew what was good for them. The voices, publications, and alumni who understood the context and knew the facts were overshadowed because of College Gameday. Jackson State wasn't the favorite against NCCU and was destined for trouble with SCSU in the future. We were not taken seriously.
"Deion didn't want to have anything to do with me leading up to the game." He didn't show up to the press conference. He wasn't at any of the events I attended. I didn't have anything to say to him and he didn't have anything to say to me. We shook hands and moved it.
Oliver said it was so much sweeter to send him on his way to Colorado. They're going to dominate because he's been talking about it. He can bring that with him to Colorado.
It will be a rude awakening for him when he gets to Colorado, as he will be taking his 27-6 record to a program that just finished a 1-11 season. The Buffaloes will play games against USC, Oregon, UCLA, and Utah in the years to come. They will play North Dakota State in the first game of their slate. In the last four years, the bison have won nine national titles.
The Coach Prime era at Jackson State was always going to be a problem for HBCUs because he was never going to graduate a single recruiting class. Not all public relations are good. With all the attention, debates, and coverage that his tenure created is bound to go away faster than it appeared, there will definitely be an adjustment period.
This is a lesson that can be learned. One needs to understand, respect, and listen to the ones who were here before the cameras, and still will be after they are gone. The increase in HBCU applications has nothing to do with Deion Sanders, football, or top tier prospects flirting/lying about the idea of turning down a Power 5 program to attend one. The Black Lives Matter movement has been responsible for it. Students are realizing the importance of HBCUs and want to go home, and football and a fake hero have nothing to do with it.
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