Hampton calls MEAC 'vindictive' after school's conference switch

(via the MEAC)
(via the MEAC)

Hampton and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference aren’t exactly getting along.

Here’s why: The FCS school is prepping to switch from the MEAC to the Big South conference for the 2019 football season. That means 2018 is an interim year of sorts, and the school says the MEAC is preventing it from playing a transitional schedule before officially heading to the Big South.

In a release defending its side of the story, Hampton called the conference “vindictive.” In it, the school says the MEAC has been “stripping Hampton University students and coaches of Conference Superlatives, such as bowl games, automatic NCAA tournament berths, MEAC Player of the Week, All-Conference team honors, Coach of the Year, or even selection to the Commissioner’s All-Academic Team.”

“I am appalled that, after a 22-year rewarding and productive relationship and numerous conference championships, the MEAC wants to hang Hampton University student-athletes out to dry. These are the same talented young people whose NCAA appearances have resulted in millions of dollars being poured into MEAC coffers,” Hampton vice president Paul Harris said in a statement.

Hampton says it even offered to play a full MEAC schedule in 2018 before heading to the Big South but the MEAC declined the offer. The school says the MEAC listed demands — which you can read in full here — that included a requirement that Hampton play a MEAC schedule in 2018 while being considered as an independent and that the school should schedule eight MEAC games from 2019-2021. Which, as you can understand, makes no sense given that Hampton would be a member of the Big South and play a Big South schedule.

The commissioner of the MEAC told the Daily Press on Tuesday that he hadn’t had a chance to read Hampton’s statement and once he did, the conference would have the “appropriate response.”

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!