Verzu5th

 

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

V is the Roman numeral for 5. That's mostly coincidence, but let's go with it. 

Since we were first sidelined by the global pandemic, a number of options have popped up to keep us virtually entertained. Among the most enduring of these is Verzuz, the brainchild of superproducers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, which pits a pair of artists against one another as their catalogs do battle, song for song, for a number of rounds.

Basically, a 5th quarter.

Like its band counterpart, Verzuz battles crown no champion - that's for the audience to decide. Each Verzuz has its own personality. Some have been strictly business, others all love, and some have been so tense you were sure something was going to pop off. While mutual respect generally abounds, that doesn't necessarily mean there's a shortage of bad blood or unresolved beef at play as well. 

At their best, Verzuz artists have played offense and defense. A battle is not about queuing up your 20 songs and letting the DJ play. You next song should be a response to what was played before, or vice versa. Strike and parry; parry and strike. The paradox is that while the exhibition isn't scored, to the degree it is, it's scored round for round: How did what you dropped match up with what your opponent had to say? Strategy matters. In the end, we're the ones that will score the rounds, but whether Verzuz or the 5th, one fact remains:

The audience wins.

Indy/pendent

 

However the 2021 DCI season ends in Indianapolis, they'll be short their last two World Class champions.

On Thursday, DCI announced an "event series" to take place during Championship Weekend in Indianapolis. While the full slate of performance opportunities is yet to be determined, DCI has started using the language of 2021 being a "bridge" to a full return in the summer of 2022. 

It's understandable. While the start of the season is still six months away, now is when plans would be put into place: venues booked, housing secured, schedules set - and as the pandemic rages on with no knowledge of its end, DCI is right to plan for contingencies. Moreso than perhaps any other sport or activity in the nation, a DCI tour schedule is at the behest of dozens, if not hundreds, of different regulational jurisdictions - municipal, state, national; school districts and public gathering limits; their ability to gather, rehearse, and paramount: perform for an audience are all variables when considering the viability of a season.

But as the league started talking about its plan, the two premier west coast corps - Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard - have announced that they won't be making the trip to Indy, detailing their roadmap to 2022, DCI's 50th anniversary. 

If planning for a national tour is unthinkable at the current stage for most corps, it's even moreso for this Bay Area duo. While most corps boast a national tour, many eastern corps really only make it west of the Rockies once every few years, while the top flight California corps truly hit four time zones each summer they load the bus. This means they've got more to plan for, not the least of which is the financial piece. 

It looks as though those two corps intend to craft a meaningful experience for their members, just one that sticks a good deal closer to home. I expect other corps may look to do the same in their own geographic regions, whether or not they ultimately make it to Indy. Coincidentally, schedules may look a good deal more regional, harkening back to the league's early days, for the year leading into the activity's golden jubilee. As long as it will keep the corps solvent to reach that milestone, I welcome it.

Bracket Busters

 2020 just needs its own tag.

Of all of this season's anomalies, the coolest may have just come into play. This Saturday, two undefeated non-Power 5 teams, Coastal Carolina and BYU, will play - on College Gameday, no less. This game didn't exist 24 hours ago. Coastal was set to host Liberty, currently a 9-1 Independent on College Gameday before COVID-19 changed the Flames' plans. The game could prove bountiful for one of two teams jockeying for a New Years Six bowl and an outside shot at the College Football Playoff.

This game isn't the first to come into play quickly as teams seek to duct tape their schedules back together amid COVID cancellations, but it may just be the most meaningful. It also represents an agility we've never seen before in college football, where games are typically scheduled many years in advance. The sport's usual scheduling paradigm leads to schools trying to schedule formidable opponents based on their current rankings, hoping they'll still be good enough to positively affect strength of schedule years from now. Now, both Coastal and BYU get to ink a deal with a team they already know is in the committee's top 25, with a resume boost on the line.

The concept is similar to the Bracket Busters concept, where late season flex dates gave the opportunity for tournament hopeful mid-majors to improve their fortune in advance of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In college football, while this game alone likely won't do it for either team, the flexibility it represents could present a path forward for future Group of Five teams who lack the perceived strength of schedule to get them the postseason they deserve.

There may not be a ton to celebrate or emulate from this year, but this one's a keeper.

Deceptive Cadence

 When I added the tagline "The Cadence of Gameday" to 80 Minutes of Regulation, the double entendre was intentional. As a bandsman generally, and a drummer specifically, I know that the cadence is the drumbeat that  gets us going and keeps us going through the day's marching. But the cadence is also the pace of gameday in its entirety: While it was the pairing of marching band and sports that breathed life into this site, it soon expanded to include all of gameday, from the tailgate lot before hand, to the pregame, the game, halftime, the fifth quarter, the victory shakos after a win, all of it. 

This year, the cadence is deceptive.

Like so many other things in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand Twenty, the cadence of gameday just doesn't hit as it ought to. Tailgates are nonexistent at stadiums that are only a fraction full. Bands are all but sneaking into the stadiums to avoid any situation that may draw an unwanted crowd. And once they're there, they don't get to take the field, performing socially distanced in the stands, sometimes in platoons composed of only a portion of the band. 

This week is typically the valley between rivalry week and conference championship games, and even that looks different. With the end of the season still weeks away, some traditional rivalries have moved as well, while conference-only schedules have kept others from occurring at all. The College Football Playoff committee just released its third rankings, going through the unenviable task of comparing teams with uneven games played and next to no intersectional competition as a basis for comparison. 

The bowls are empowered to do as they please, with no minimum win or records standards because, hell, it's 2020.  37 remain, down slightly from last year, and they will likely play to mostly empty stadiums without bands present. The annual Band on the Road series was cancelled this year for obvious reasons, and the same will certainly be true of #bowlbands, save perhaps for the cases where a team is playing a home game in a bowl. We'll make it to the finish line of this year, even crown a champion, but the entire season's cadence has been anything but typical.

Contact

In less than 24 hours, there will be live college football.

With all due respect to Central Arkansas and Austin Peay, who played in a "Week 0" matchup last weekend, the sport continues at the FBS level this week as the Sun Belt, American, and Conference USA begin play. Power 5 play begins a week later with the ACC and Big 12, and the SEC, content to let the other conferences serve as cannon fodder to any potential setbacks, resumes play in what most would call Week 4 on the last Saturday in September.

To be frank, I was doubtful we'd get to this point. Once the Big Ten and Pac 12 announced the postponement of their seasons, I thought the other Power 5 leagues would follow suit. Even once none of the remaining three made the immediate move, I thought for sure that UNC, NC State, and Notre Dame going to online only instruction temporarily or permanently might force the ACC's hand. But while there's still a week plus until the remaining P5 leagues kick off, it seems to be full speed ahead.

It's not the choice I would make if I were in a vacuum the likes of which no actual decision maker enjoys. I certainly would have erred on the conservative side and been alongside the Big Ten and Pac 12 in postponing the season. But now that the toothpaste is out of the tube, I'm rooting for a successful season, if for only one reason: It means that this season took place safely.

Above all else, I'm rooting for safety. I would far rather be "wrong" and have the season go off without a hitch, because "right" means that players got infected, got sick, or even died as we put college football's "student athletes" into harm's way to financially prop up athletic departments and universities. Wrong means that the plans, protocols, and safety measures are working. Wrong means a path forward for college football, certainly, but maybe for us all.

But selfishly, as a fan, wrong could mean one more thing. If the six conferences that play find a successful way forward, the Big Ten, Pac 12, MAC, and Mountain West, who have been using "postponed" language with regards to their fall season, and some seem to be mulling tentative plans at a season that starts at the very end of 2020 or early 2021. Consider this: The Rose Bowl is locked in as a College Football Playoff semifinal site for this season. If their traditional conferences, the Big Ten and Pac 12, play in the spring, could the Granddaddy of 'em All have its cake and eat it too with a spring Rose Bowl? It would certainly be the best possible end to an unorthodox, bifurcated season.

Black All Over

I've stuck pretty close to home since mid-March when coronavirus changed so much here in the US. It was a quest for beer that got me out.

To be fair, it was more than beer. Black Is Beautiful is a nationwide collaboration spearheaded by Weathered Souls, a Black-owned brewery in San Antonio, TX. On the heels of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings, Weathered Souls started a collaboration and a conversation, with beer as the vehicle. The collaboration was Black is Beautiful, an open source beer recipe made available to any brewery or home brewer who wanted to try their hand at it. Participating breweries were asked to donate their proceeds to "local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged" or  "local organizations that support equality and inclusion"  While also committing to "the long term work of equality." Breweries from all 50 states, several countries, and home brewers signed on to the project, which meant any enterprising beerhead could stake out on a mission. I was such a beerhead.

I identified five breweries within an hourish drive of me who were brewing their own takes on Black is Beautiful, and inadvertently ended up with a sixth before I was done. While none of the eight breweries here in Greensboro participated, there were a few options in the Triad and just beyond.

My first trip was out to Wise Man, who did a version with chocolate and raspberries. Next released was across state lines - my first such trip since before March - to Ballad Brewing up in Danville. As far as I can tell, they went with the base recipe, but did a great job with it.

The other four came in the same weekend, as July gave way to August. I headed out on Friday to Kernersville Brewing, where they had their version on draft, and came home with a crowler. A trip down to Ikea in Charlotte also led to a stop by NoDa (and Divine Barrel, but they were unexpectedly closed) - while I wasn't heading down to all of Charlotte's myriad options, those in north Charlotte were accessible enough. NoDa altered the normal stout recipe into a dark pilsner. Sunday was for points east; Forgotten Road Ales in Graham, and Durty Bull in Durham. Forgotten Road offered the most options: A mixed four pack with their base recipe and coconut, chocolate hazelnut, and cinnamon vanilla varieties, while Durty Bull partnered with fellow Durhamites Jeddah's Tea for a chai version.

And while that ended my personal quest, I saved some for trade - both with a specific friend and potentially for future use - and I might mess around and do a vertical of what I've got at some point. And while I appreciate the project as a beer fan, I'm hoping it did what is set out to: Start the conversation.

Empty Promises

As the world continues to reel from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, sports in general and college football specifically are trying to figure out their path to return.

I'm just going to have to make my peace with the fact that this will be outdated nearly as soon as it posts, as the landscape of college sports, specifically college football's 2020 season, evolves rapidly.

To timestamp this: I write in the waning hour of July 9; it will likely post just beyond the midnight threshold. I'm reasonably certain the news cycle has wound down for the day. From there, I've probably got at least eight hours - likely 12, because announcements often come around mid-day, after morning meetings - before the landscape changes once more.

In the past 48 hours alone, we've learned that the Ivy League became the first Division I conference to decide not to compete this fall; Division II's SIAC and CIAA have stated the same, functionally ending all HBCU competition at the D-II level. The Big Ten will play only conference games; the ACC is reportedly considering the same, having already delayed the start of competition for its Olympic sports until at least September 1. Bands in the Big 12 will not travel to road games. Before this, we already learned about the cancellation of several neutral site games, including the Southern Heritage Classic and Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic; the NAIA not starting competition until at least September 12, and the American Athletic Conference not allowing bands on the field at all.

All of these steps are being taken to preserve some semblance of a season as we know it, but are we moving towards a safer product that can resume in the fall, or rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

College football sits amid a quagmire of sports, culture, education, politics, and the almighty dollar that make a decision to cancel or not particularly complicated. The major professional leagues are all making their plans for a return: NASCAR's back already, racing to empty speedways; MLB will return at the end of the month with a shortened season and regionalized action; MLS has returned to a World Cup style tournament in a quasi-Olympic village in Orlando; the NBA is doing similar when their season returns in three weeks. And save for a remote draft, the NFL, whose start date laid the latest from the initial COVID-19 interruptions has soldiered on towards its September start as though there is no pandemic.

College football is different. The sport has no central leadership structure; even the NCAA barely holds sway at the sports highest level, where the championship is decided by a proprietary invitational playoff. Teams in the FBS play in 41 states, 10 conferences, myriad state university systems, and municipalities ranging from college towns to major metropolitan areas, each of which make decisions that affect the sport, and each of which is making their own decisions for their constituencies about what is in their best interest during this pandemic.

One of the first hurdles: Are students even returning to campus for an in-person fall semester? Most are, in many cases with some modifications including hybrid or online courses and campus social distancing, face covering, and testing or self monitoring protocols. Still, social distancing efforts are for naught with up to 400 in a band room playing wind instruments, or gathered in a locker room before taking the field to engage in a collision sport. There have already been spikes in positive tests among players at both of this past year's championship contenders, LSU and Clemson. 

Social distancing also becomes tricky when it comes to the 100,000+ seat cathedrals at which we worship college football each fall Saturday. There has been talk of diminishing capacity in such a way that allows attendees to social distance, but I think that's the most you can do to limit it. Unlike the professional leagues, where athletes earning into the millions are competing, it takes quite the ethical limbo to tell the student-athletes - a term we love to sling when it's convenient - that they can risk their health without compensation when it's deemed unsafe for their classmates to watch from the stands.

The athletes, meanwhile, are competing in an ecosystem that contains 130 teams at the sports highest level alone. Even if each conference restricts simply to league play, as the Big Ten has, playing puts each player into direct or indirect contact with over 1,000 players per conference, to say nothing of coaches, support staff, and others on campus with whom each of them are in contact. 

The sport is predicated on travel, for both the teams and the fans. The season brings travel into communities like Starkville and State College, Columbia and Corvallis. One of the early illustrations on the virus' spread in the US tracked those who spent Spring Break in Florida and returned to their hometowns afterwards. Consider that same model playing out over a 12 game season from hundreds of campus sites. And limiting or even eliminating in stadium crowds may do little to limit that. Outside of perhaps the NFL and NASCAR - and for the latter of these, much of it occurs within gates that the league controls - college football's tailgate culture is such that even if fans can't get in the stadium, it may take a small army to keep them from showing up for their Saturday parking lot ritual and watching the game from their rig.

But the show must go on - or at least, it will try its damndest. To lose the season would cause grievous, if not catastrophic, financial damage to many institutions' athletic departments. In many cases, college football revenue keeps the lights on for the rest of the athletic department, and in the top programs, much of the university as well, be it through directly generated ticket and TV revenue or the rest of the industrial complex that commands alumni and donor giving, merchandise sales, parking, concessions, and even a sizable boost to the local economy as campuses become one of the largest cities in their respective states for a Saturday afternoon a half dozen or so times a year. College football is also a key driver in the spirit of their community and the psychological sense of belonging. A pandemic rages on, and the return of football would allow to believe in whatever normal is.

Let's Go, Wildcats

Image from swac.org

The SWAC train hadn't finished boarding before departing Florida.

Three weeks ago, the FAMU Rattlers announced that this coming year in the MEAC will be their last, and now their rival and statemate Bethune Cookman will be following in their footsteps. BCU and FAMU will be joined in departure by North Carolina A&T, who will head to the Big South for the 2021-22 academic year. While many factors likely led to Bethune's decision, the writing on the wall for the MEAC had to be among them.

BCU is an interesting geographic outlier. When you remove nearby FAMU, The Wildcats' trip to their next four closest Division I HBCUs is longer than anyone else's. The move to the SWAC makes their longest stretch a bit longer - 1,000 miles to Prairie View vs. just under 900 to Delaware State - but there's something to be said for knowing your conference will be there tomorrow, which was on increasingly shaky ground in the MEAC. Divisional play will also minimize some of the longest trips.

BCU also likely considered a shared fate with FAMU, with whom they've been conferencemates in the SIAC and MEAC since 1950, save for a couple of brief departures for FAMU. The dual move will keep the Florida Classic a conference game, and it will join an already rich slate of intraconference SWAC classics. The addition of BCU and FAMU in the east will certainly also necessitate the shifting of divisions. The new balance would send one of the Mississippi schools to the west; geography would dictate it be Alcorn, though a Jackson State move would keep the BoomBox classic divisional.

Down to six football playing members after the moves, the MEAC is feeling mighty Big Eastish. The remaining schools have to be looking for the exits; it has already been a reported conversation among Delaware State's Board of Trustees, and any other school would be shortsighted not to be having the same conversations. For schools wishing to remain Division I, the Big South, which will already be home to two HBCUs may be the best fit for many as nearly all of the remaining conference falls within or only slightly extends the Big South's footprint. All or parts of the league also share geographical ties with the Southern Conference, Patriot League, Colonial Athletic Association, and Northeast Conference. If schools see fit to end their run at the Division I level, most of the conference is former members of the Divisions II CIAA. The folks at HBCU Gameday also floated the emergence of a new conference.

A loss of the MEAC would also mean the end of the Celebration Bowl, unless they re-evaluated selection. Currently, the game pits the champions of the MEAC and SWAC against one another to determine Black college football's champion. If the MEAC were to continue, four time champion North Carolina A&T would no longer be in the running. The bowl could continue as a SWAC vs. Everybody competition - a move that puts Tennessee State, previously the only Division I HBCU not in an all HBCU conference, in the running for the first time - or take the overall best two records, which could result in either a SWAC rematch or the conference's exclusion. To lose the bowl altogether would destage a major HBCU presence during college football's postseason. But I would imagine there's no determination to be made there until all of the realignment dust settles.

Realignment (And it Feels So Good?)

Since news of FAMU's move to the SWAC, the realignment train has kept rolling right on down the track. First, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) announced a move to America East in 2020. The Highlanders are currently affiliated with the Atlantic Sun Conference. NJIT's move bridges, albeit minorly, the large gap between UMBC and its closest league opponents being over 250 miles away in the Northeast. NJIT also finds a much better fit for itself; all of its A-Sun conferencemates were at minimum three states away, with half of the rest of the league being down in Florida. 

A state away, the Robert Morris Colonials had an announcement of their own - a move to the Horizon league. Robert Morris has been in the Northeast Conference since the leagues 1981 inception. In the Horizon, they find a geographical fit with fellow Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Region schools. The Colonials' football program will join the Big South, which grows to nine football members after its recent additions.

The Big South could make things interesting. The impending departure of A&T and FAMU has already placed the MEAC on shakier ground, and word on the street is that Bethune-Cookman has a wandering eye as well. HBCU Gameday has examined a number of realignment scenarios involving the current MEAC programs, and the Big South could be a landing place for some programs should the MEAC falter. After the realignment that we already know about, the Big South will have 12 members in most sports and nine in football, and could be a landing place for schools in the middle of the MEAC's geography that wish to remain DI. BCU could also fill the hole that NJIT leaves in the A-Sun for most sports, while becoming a football only member of the Big South, which already reaches beyond its Carolinas/Virginia footprint to include Kennesaw State and North Alabama in its football league. For now, we'll just have to wait and see where this carousel ends.

Southern Cuisine

@DukesMayoBowl's Twitter avi.

 The bowl most recently known as the Belk Bowl has a new identity. Belk announced in late 2019 that the game played that year in Charlotte would be the last to bear its name and corporate sponsorship. Southern Staple Duke's Mayonnaise has since taken up the mantle, and it was announced as the Duke's Mayo Bowl earlier this week. The game pits an ACC team against a team from either the SEC or Big Ten. The early season neutral site game in Charlotte will also bear the Duke's name.

Like Belk, Duke's is a brand born in the Carolinas (Greenville, SC to Belk's Monroe, NC) and inextricably linked to the South. Among the cultural divides between north and south is that of Hellman's vs. Duke's, which makes it a good fit for a both headquartered in Charlotte. Since the bowl began its contract pitting the ACC vs. the SEC in 2014, the matchup has always included a pair of southern schools; this will certainly change (College Park's regional ambiguity notwithstanding) when the SEC begins alternating with the Big Ten for their half of the bowl bid.

This is where my carpetbagger shows: I don't have a personal connection to Duke's. Still, I recognize its regional prominence, and think it makes a strong fit for the Charlotte bowl game.

Punctuation Marks

As the nation is in the punctuation phase of punctuated equilibrium, it was never reasonable to assume that the sports and marching worlds would remain immune. We've already seen the removal of the confederate battle flag from NASCAR, and now change is making its way to college sports.

The University of Florida has announced the end of its "Gator Bait" cheer, a fanfare played by the marching band followed by the eponymous words from the fans. While the cheer refers to Florida's Gator mascot, the phrase has a far darker origin, reaching back to a time when alligator hunters would use Black babies - typicallly enslaved children - at bait. The University of Florida is taking a top-to-bottom look at their traditions and practices through a lens of equity, and in doing so, decided that Gator Bait had to go.

Across the state line, the Gators' rival University of Georgia is removing Tara's Theme from the Redcoat Band's postgame. The piece is form the soundtrack of Gone with the Wind, a film that's depiction of antebellum and Civil War era plantation life has it under renewed scrutiny, The film has been temporarily pulled from streaming services to be returned with additional context. The Redcoat Band will replace Tara's Theme with Georgia on my Mind.

The recent moves by Florida and Georgia are reminiscent of Ole Miss' Pride of the South removing From Dixie With Love from their repertoire. In that instance, the piece had become the tableau for unwanted tradition.

Speaking of Mississippi, their state flag - the only flag in the country that still incorporates a portion of the confederate battle flag - has come under renewed scrutiny. First the SEC made a statement that it was time for a change to the state flag, and said it would consider withholding championship games from the state if the current flag continued to fly. Mississippi State hosted the softball championships in 2018, and the men's and women's tennis championships currently rotate to all schools. Shortly after the SEC's statement, the NCAA said it would no longer host postseason events in Mississippi due to the presence of the flag. This move is a re-interpretation of a ban that took place in 2001, and for a long time kept postseason play out of the state of South Carolina due to the battle flag's presence on the state house grounds. South Carolina has hosted postseason events since the flag was removed in 2015. Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State hosted baseball regionals last year. The South Carolina legislature did not make any changes based strictly on NCAA pressure; we'll see how loud the clangs get in Mississippi.

Checkered Flag

Every so often, America gets a glimpse in the mirror and decides, however superficially or temporarily, that it's time to take a look at its own racism.

The most recent reckoning has come following the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers, and the subsequent uprisings throughout the nation and world. Floyd's death occurred in the most recent context of Breonna Taylor's killing by Louisville Metro Police; the nation learning of Ahmaud Arbery's February murder by racist vigilantes, one of whom was a former police officer and former investigator for the DA's office; and Tony McDade, who was killed by police in Tallahassee days after Floyd.

As many in the sports world addressed the killing of George Floyd specifically and the fact that Black Lives Matter and systemic racism more generally, NASCAR took action in a different way: By banning the confederate battle flag from its events.

The move from NASCAR comes amid the US Navy and Marines banning the flag's presence, and a short-lived conversation on the renaming of military bases named after confederate figures. The change in NASCAR was brought to the forefront by Bubba Wallace, the sport's sole Black driver at its highest level, who also ran a Black Lives Matter car in the first race following the announcement at Martinsville.

The most recent awakening concerning the rebel flag came in 2015, shortly after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Following this massacre, South Carolina removed the battle flag from their statehouse grounds, and at that point NASCAR condemned the flag's presence, though no steps were made to remove it. It is notable that in the case of Dylann Roof, he openly identified with and displayed the confederate battle flag, making a clear association between his attack and the flag's disavowal in 2015. In NASCAR's most recent move, the flag's removal was simply an acknowledgment of the flag's association with white supremacy and anti-Black sentiments, to say nothing of its inimical relationship with the United States itself.

The flag's association with NASCAR comes from stock car racing's origins in the South, born of a rebellious spirit in the form of moonshine running in the prohibition era. Some southern race fans have lamented the NASCAR's expansion beyond the South and the perceived de-emphasis of its base, and see the movement away from the flag as further evidence of this trend. While reaction has been largely favorable from outside the sport's core, there have been mixed reactions from those within. Following the move, jobber Ray Ciccarellit, a driver with the NASCAR Truck Series, flounced following the announcement, stating that the current season would be his last.

Time will tell how the move plays out with fans present. Currently, NASCAR is racing to empty speedways amid the coronavirus pandemic. There's no telling if it will have an impact on attendance, if some fans will be defiant or choose to fly alternative confederate flags, or how they will go about enforcing it, but NASCAR taking this stand was major.

Fangs for the Memories

If I told you that the latest round of realignment left a conference's southern edge stretching from North Florida to East Texas, you might think it was a callback to Texas A&M's announcement to join the SEC.

This time it's the SWAC.

Florida A&M announced Thursday that they will head to the SWAC effective the 2021-22 academic year, making this coming school year their last in the MEAC. Their departure from the conference will coincide with that of North Carolina A&T, who will depart for the Big South.

FAMU's conference move is understandable, if not foreseeable, in the context of the round of realignment that led to Big East football's dissolution. Once Pitt and Syracuse announced their jump to the ACC, no one wanted to be the last team left standing when the music stopped, and everyone with a viable path began heading to the exits, including such strange bedfellows as West Virginia to the Big 12 and Rutgers to the Big Ten. At first glance, FAMU in the SWAC may seem one of those mismatches.

But historic fiefdoms aside, FAMU to the SWAC isn't as out of place as it seems. The Rattlers were one of the two southernmost schools in the MEAC, the most extensive conference east of the Rockies. While FAMU will be the only conference school in the eastern time zone, even their longest road trip - a 750 mile jaunt along I-10 to Prairie View A&M - is shorter than its current conference trips to the entire MEAC North:

FAMU's departure deals yet another blow to an already reeling MEAC, who will be down to just seven football members after losing FAMU and A&T. In both programs, it's not just that they've lost, but who they've lost: Two of the largest HBCUs in the nation, each school's name recognition, and in the case of FAMU, the only HBCU to win the I-AA (now FCS) national championship and a Sudler Trophy. And as in the case of the Big East, this level of instability could cause other programs to get antsy. While the SWAC isn't a good geographic fit for anyone else in the conference, any of the programs could consider relegating to Division II and joining the CIAA or SIAC, or joining a conference that's not primarily comprised of HBCUs. Howard, Norfolk State, NC Central, and SC State fit neatly into the Big South footprint, for instance, and the conference has already welcomed fellow HBCUs Hampton and A&T into the fold.

It's also worth wondering what the SWAC's end game will be. The addition of FAMU gives them 11 members and unbalanced divisions. While they've already received the NCAA exemption to hold a conference championship game with fewer than 12 members, further expansion would bring balance. A logical target would be Tennessee State, the OG of Division I HBCUs outside of the MEAC and SWAC, which currently resides in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Tigers already enjoy rivalries with SWAC schools, and as a member of the SWAC would have access to the Celebration Bowel and a Black College Football National Championship - provided the MEAC endures and the game continues. Adding Tennessee State might also cause a divisional realignment; assuming the SWAC didn't intend to go the Mizzou-in-the-SEC-East route, either Alcorn or Jackson State would head west.

And, of course, the move to the new neighborhood means new conference matchups for the Marching 100. Last season's tilt with Southern's Human Jukebox was highly anticipated, and as a conference showdown, these two programs can rekindle both familiarity and contempt. Their presumed division along will bring trips to and visits from the likes of the Sonic Boom of the South and Marching Maroon and White each year, while in the crossover loom the Ocean of Soul and the World Famed Tiger Marching Band in addition to the Human Jukebox. FAMU's football prowess may even land the 100 a visitor in Tallahassee for the SWAC championship game, or a trip to Atlanta for the Celebration Bowl. FAMU - both the team and the band - get access to fertile recruiting in Louisiana and Texas, in addition to that which they already enjoy in Florida and nearby Georgia and Alabama. The MEAC/SWAC smack talk lines are no longer strictly regional, the Florida Classic is now an intersectional matchup, and the HBCU sports landscape changes once more.

One Shining Moment

It never came to pass, but for one shining moment, we knew that pep bands were essential personnel.

News of the college hoops world's reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic changed very quickly. Mid day this past Wednesday, I expected to spend Thursday night in the Greensboro Coliseum for the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. By that evening we would learn that no fans would be in attendance, before the tournament was cancelled completely about a half hour before the tip of the first quarterfinal game.

But an awesome thing happened: As those who were allowed to attend filed into the Coliseum for the first quarterfinal matchup, among them were FSU and Clemson's pep bands. It's what I believe should have happened - social distancing is important, of course, but the pep bands occupy a part of the arena distinct from those occupied by the team or the media who we knew would be present. Keeping the pep bands allows for a modicum of normalcy in absurd times, ensuring that both teams have some of their most fervent supporters and their soundtrack, present. It would seem that the Atlantic Coast Conference agreed, as both bands were to be among those in attendance before the tournament was abruptly curtailed. While the game was never played, it's great that if it had been, the bands would have been on hand.

Big South, Big News

The realignment carousel is up for another spin - this time at the FCS level.

North Carolina A&T announced on Friday that they'll be leaving the MEAC, of whom they are a charter member, for the Big South, effective July 1, 2021. The Aggies, have earned at least a share of five of the last six MEAC football titles, a run that included four Celebration Bowl victories. The men's and women's basketball teams have won the conference as recently as 2013 and 2016, respectively. A&T is the second MEAC school to depart for the Big South since 2018, when Hampton University made the move.

A&T's departure from the MEAC wasn't entirely surprising - most recent rumors had spoken of a potential move to FBS - but upon the rumored announcement yesterday, a move to the Big South seemed lateral at best. In NCAA men's basketball tournament parlance, both teams are one bid leagues that have sent their champions to Dayton for the First Four. In football, the Big South sends its champion to the NCAA Division I playoffs, while the MEAC champion plays in the Celebration Bowl for the HBCU championship. It's possible money is a primary motivator - and to be clear, in matters of realignment, it almost always is - but barring that, my immediate thoughts went to what they'd be gaining versus what they'd be giving up.

For the next 18 months, A&T resides in the MEAC, one of two Division I conferences comprised entirely of HBCUs. The MEAC is the junior of the two, having emerged in 1970 primarily from former CIAA members, and became a Division I conference in 1978. The member schools' shared identity has led to conference solidarity even amidst rivalry - Against the SWAC, the other such conference, at least. Dating back to the CIAA, A&T has shared a conference with Howard for nearly a century, and has had stretches with other conference rivals, whether continuous or interrupted, since the 1920s. The move feels like the sort of cultural disconnect I felt when the Terps went to the Big Ten, in which another conference charter member set off on a new path. For the record, that pairing still makes little sense to me, and at least a present, I feel the same way about A&T's move.

A&T cited travel cost savings among its reasons for the move. The MEAC is the most extensive of any FCS conference east of the Rockies, stretching nearly 1,000 miles from FAMU in the south to Delaware State in the north. In contrast, no team will play more than a state away in the Big South, where all members are in the Carolinas and Virginia - save for football-only outliers Monmouth in New Jersey, Kennesaw State in Georgia, and North Alabama. The Aggies will once again share a conference with Hampton, and may find a new conference rival in fellow Triad school High Point or UNC systemmmate UNC Asheville. Still, it's hard at this juncture to see the Aggie faithful getting as excited about games against Gardner-Webb and Campbell as they did about games against Norfolk State and FAMU - especially at halftime. The Aggies will have a chance to return to the NCAA Division I football playoffs, which they last visited in 2016 as an at-large as MEAC runner up. In this, the Big South has been a two bid league each of the past two years, finding its success in the form of football-only members Monmouth and Kennesaw State. The Aggies may also see the Big South as a more effective launchpad to FBS, as it was for Coastal Carolina a few years ago.

The Big South made out great on the deal. In A&T, they get a competitive program with a loyal fanbase that fits neatly into the conference footprint. The conference will drop to just seven football playing members in 2020 as Presbyterian's programs opts for the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League. Returning to eight will give league members seven conference games, and four out of conference slots to fill; A&T has expressly stated a desire to keep playing chief rival NC Central, and they will likely maintain relationships with other former conferencemates and HBCUs.

What will become of the MEAC? The conference will fall to eight football members following A&T's departure, down from 11 just two years ago with the losses of Hampton, A&T, and Savannah State, who returned to the Division II SIAC. What's more, with the Aggie, it's not just that they lost, but the program that they lost - a perennial conference champion and Celebration Bowl champion, and the nation's largest HBCU. The league office has stated a willingness to expand, but options in such are limited either to a rising Division II program, or adding a non-HBCU to the league, as the CIAA and SIAC have done. The MEAC has stated that "member institutions are united to remain a viable and sustainable Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference," but realignment has shown that that's always true - clear up until it isn't. The MEAC has weathered departures before, but if member institutions get antsy, the conference could go the way of the Big East. In addition to the Big South, the MEAC shares parts of its footprint with the SoCon and CAA, both also FCS conferences that offer football. Programs could also consider returning to Division II, as Savannah State did recently and Winston Salem State did a decade ago. And should FAMU get jumpy, they could entertain membership in the SWAC - they share a state border and reasonable travel with Alabama State and Alabama A&M, and even the longest stretch to Prairie View is shorter than its current conference trips to Norfolk, DC, and Dover. There's no reason for the MEAC to panic yet but hopefully they're keeping a close eye at conference headquarters because once realignment comes knocking, there's no telling where it will end.

Ten Since 2010 - Live Events

I've been fortunate enough to attend plenty of live events this past decade. Here, in no particular order, are ten notable events I caught live.

16 over 1 - These are in no particular order, but this is my number 1. Being there live for the first and to date only 16 over 1 upset in the men's Division I basketball tournament would have been exciting enough. That 16 just so happening to be my alma mater made it indescribable.
Preakness - I took in the second jewel of the Triple Crown for my bachelor party, born simply of a fortuitous trip to Baltimore during the right weekend.
Honeymoon - Our honeymoon - an Alaskan cruise and cross-country drive - was deceptively sports filled, with trips to Wrigley Field, Camp Randall Stadium, and the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
BasketBinge - On a glorious weekend in 2013, I caught three games in about 24 hours in two states and DC, en route to UMBC's Spirit Groups Alumni Day.
CFB Opening Weekend 2013 - I caught the first game of the season - North Carolina at South Carolina - as well as the inaugural game for Charlotte 49ers football.
2014 DCI Championships - Made the trip up to Indianapolis and caught not only Friday's semifinals in Lucas Oil Stadium, but toured DCI HQ, checked out the Rhythm Discovery Center, and saw Drumline Battle live in action.
Louisville at Clemson - Headed down to the Upstate for a live Clemson game towards the beginning of their rise.
Queen City Battle of the Bands - The final QCBOB in Charlotte before the took their ball to play elsewhere.
College Football Playoff Championship Weekend - While I came and went before the bands got to town, this weekend in the A was highlighted by plenty of CFB Playoff fan activities and a Solid Verbal live show.
Fresh Fest - The trip to the nation's first Black craft beer festival also included a tour of PNC Park and a preseason Steelers game.

Ten since 2010: Posts

I don't feel as though I need to excuse the fact that my Decade In Review post is coming the better part of a month into the new year, but if I did, I'd note that in a space that follows college football heavily, considers the Honda one of the high holy days, and will ultimately keep this season pushing through the Super Bowl, this is just about on time.

Having started in 2008, the 2010s are the first full calendar decade of 80 Minutes of Regulation. I looked back over the decade to pull a few posts of note over the past ten years.

Champion's Honor - when the Honda Battle of the Bands honored the life of Robert Champion.
Winds of Change - as Drum Corps International considered a proposal to add woodwinds
I'm Gonna Miss H.E.R.  - as realignment took West Virginia from the Big East
One Band, One Sound, One Decade Later - reflections on Drumline ten years after its release
Big East (1979-2013) - a eulogy for the Big East Conference
That Which we Call a Corps By Any Other Name... - drum corps *whispers* are marching bands
Earning Their Stripes - Triad Stage's Common Enemy brings the tale of college athletics to the stage
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black - Cam Newton's swag is that of an HBCU marching band
Columbus Day - on the Columbusing of Neck
Coda - The 5th Quarter comes to a close

Tiger Tiger, Burning Bright

I'll cycle through the obvious ones first: Yes, I'm rooting for the Tigers. Which Tigers? The ones that play in Death Valley.

But with the College Football Playoff National Championship looming, I suppose I should pick a side. And with all due respect to some great friends of mine who hold either degrees or fandoms with the Blue Ridge Bengals...

...Geaux.

Pourquoi? Blame it all on my roots. My family - my paternal grandmother, specifically - is from New Orleans, the Nero family homestead, where some of my extended family still live. It's the extended branch to which I am most connected, and as such I've always felt an affinity for Louisiana, despite not yet having been there. LSU has a tie to its home state like few other flagships enjoy, as most tend to split loyalty with another in-state program. My Louisiana kin are purple and gold clad, and with no actual ties to either team, I'm inclined to oblige.

Interestingly enough, it's those same roots that would give me reason to distance myself from Baton Rouge. With Louisiana - and with it, its system of higher education - still being deeply segregated in the 1940s, my grandma, who got her undergraduate degree across town at Southern, was denied entry to LSU, because racism. She would ultimately join the Second Great Migration and get her master's degree from Wisconsin. LSU's first Black student would set foot on campus in the fall of 1953, a semester after the birth of my grandmother's second child - my father. Still, she would have seen no different prognosis had she been a South Carolinian; Clemson would not integrate until nearly a decade later.

One more thing draws me to LSU: Coach O. The fact that LSU did right by head coach Ed Orgeron has been rewarded so far, and I would love to see if culminate in a championship. Coach O is as Louisiana as it gets, and I was pleased to see him get the call after LSU parted ways with Les Miles.  For this loyalty to be rewarded on Monday night would mean the world to that coach, school, and state.