NC A&T leaving MEAC for Big South Conference
North Carolina A&T, which helped form the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference more than a half-century ago, is leaving the MEAC for the Big South Conference.
Officials from the university and the Big South made the announcement jointly Friday morning on the N.C. A&T campus in Greensboro.
The Aggies will become a Big South member on July 1, 2021, and begin competing in the conference with the 2021-22 academic year.
They are the second MEAC member to leave for the Big South in recent years, following Hampton, which made the switch in 2018.
“We have been looking carefully at our opportunities in athletics for five years and more intensively over the past year,” N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin Sr. said. “This move makes great sense for our student-athletes, for our fans, and for our bottom line.”
W. Taylor Reveley IV, president of Longwood University and of the Big South Conference, said N.C. A&T “is a perfect fit for the Big South — its location, its proud history and academic reputation, its loyal base of alumni and other supporters, and its commitment to excellence.”
Longwood is among 11 members of the Big South, along with Radford and Hampton in Virginia; Gardner-Webb, High Point, Campbell and UNC Asheville in North Carolina; and Winthrop, Presbyterian, Charleston Southern and USC Upstate in South Carolina.
Three members of the Atlantic Sun Conference, which does not sponsor a football championship, compete in Big South football — Kennesaw State, Monmouth and North Alabama.
N.C. A&T will deliver a strong athletic program and a big fan base to the Big South.
The Aggies have won or shared the MEAC football championship four of the last five years. And they represented the conference in three of the four Celebration Bowls, which match champions of the MEAC and Southwestern Athletic Conference -- the nation’s two Division 1 conferences of historically black universities.
N.C. A&T also has strong support. One ranking had the Aggies with the 17th-best fan base among colleges and universities in the world.
By joining the Big South, N.C. A&T will get exposure in two markets where it has large fan bases -- Atlanta (Kennesaw State) and New York City (Monmouth).
The Aggies will lose access to the Celebration Bowl, which is played in Atlanta, but the Big South annually places multiple teams in the NCAA’s FCS playoffs. And their fans will have to get accustomed to new opponents in all sports, although N.C. A&T regularly has played several Big South schools in recent years.
N.C. A&T, along with N.C. Central, S.C. State and four other schools, founded the MEAC in 1969.
The Aggies departure leaves the MEAC with 10 members — N.C. Central, S.C. State, Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Coppin State, Howard, Delaware State, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Morgan State and Norfolk State.
Despite the loss of Hampton and N.C. A&T, officials with the MEAC issued a statement Friday saying they want “to confirm that the current makeup of MEAC member institutions are united to remain a viable and sustainable Football Championship Subdivision conference …”
Delaware State President Wayne Frederick, chair of the MEAC’s council of executive officers, said, “We are committed to working with our partner institutions to meet their needs and ensure the future of the conference for generations to come.”
Morgan State President David Wilson said the conference remains interested in possible expansion. In recent years, Winston-Salem State and Savannah State left the Division 2 ranks for the MEAC but returned to Division 2.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
