Money Flows to Talent: Why HBCUs Must Fight to Attract More Top Ranked Black Student-Athletes

August 23, 2020

GREENSBORO, N.C., Aug. 21, 2020 — In this third installment of the BWC Consulting‘s series, the North Carolina-based Black-owned economic development firm, with a history of working with Black institutions of higher learning, discusses the significance of closing the economic gap between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Historically White Institutions (HWIs) by leveraging athletic programs.

HBCUs have struggled financially for decades. Despite their reputation for
producing the largest number of Black professionals, these institutions
have never received the public and private financial support, or the
positioning to earn revenue in ways similar to HWIs of higher education.
The struggle to recruit, compete and capitalize on Black athletic talent is
one of many roadblocks to HBCUs addressing this persistent and lucrative
financial support disparity.

“Money and capital [both] flow to winners that produce attractive
outcomes,” said Cedric Johnson of BWC Consulting. “If more talented young
athletes choose to attend HBCUs, the dollars will continue to follow the
talent, particularly if this move towards HBCUs is done in mass. Young
athletes selecting HBCUs position these schools to be less reliant on the
generosity of white philanthropy and their selective process for
determining who gets their charity. Americans like to associate with
winners, and as these athletes build winning athletic brands at HBCUs, the
athletic and academic sides of these institutions will elevate.”

Winning athletic programs help attract larger incoming freshmen classes,
which translates into larger graduate cohorts. These larger graduate
cohorts produce an alumni base that is more likely to give back due to a
more favorable student-life experience, which can be directly tied to
recognized athletic programs.

North Carolina A&T State University, a Greensboro, NC based HBCU, has
witnessed some of its largest incoming freshman classes in recent years.
These larger incoming classes have occurred during a period in which the
university has won the HBCU Football National Championship three times in
the last four years. This success has led to the university joining the Big
South Conference, and thus leaving the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
(MEAC), in order to further enhance its brand and attractiveness to future
recruits.

Black student-athletes have propped up white college sports teams for over
50 years. Up until the 1980s, if the NFL or NBA wanted to accumulate Black
talent, they went to HBCUs. Today, they go to the power five conferences.
This accumulation of power and revenue via assimilation rather than
integration largely explains the vast disparities seen today between the
athletic programs of HBCUs and power five conferences.

This assimilation-based college athletics model creates a reality in which
what is at stake for HBCUs is more significant than a championship trophy.
HBCUs are innovation hubs that spur Black excellence at a rate that no
other institution can match. Thus, when top-tier Black student-athletes
decide to attend an HBCU, they have the potential to substantially
transform the economic landscape of the institution and the surrounding
community. They bring with them talent, revenue, and a dedicated fan-base, as well as future sports fame and prosperity.

“As an undergraduate attending a power five conference school, I was amazed at the throngs of people who embarked on campus on weekends to fill up a nearly 80,000-seat stadium,” said Johnson. “My hometown was maybe 25,000 people, so seeing how a football game attracted four times the size of my hometown, was eye-opening. This is how you spur local economic activity and opportunity at scale.”

With a windfall of revenue from athletic events, an academically and
financially astute HBCU is better positioned to produce more successful
Back professionals and help eliminate the staggering wealth gap between
Black and white families. In 2016, a typical white family earned $171,000,
nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150), according
to a study conducted by the Brookings Institute.

Many sports fans seem to have accepted the belief that Black
student-athletes, particularly those on a trajectory to reach the pros, are
better served at HWIs. Historically, these schools have offered Black
student-athletes accessibility and exposure to the professional ranks
through heavy media coverage and availability to top sports recruiters.
Both of which can lead to large financial contracts and lucrative
endorsements.

Despite HWI’s ability to help Black student-athletes obtain professional
contracts, the underlying talent lies with the athlete, and this will
always be the case. It is largely the Black student-athletes who bring
value-add to the HWI and not the other way around. It is also largely the
Black student-athletes who fill the stands with dedicated fans and allow
these HWIs to secure lucrative advertising and endorsement agreements with corporations. Again, money and capital both follow talent. Take away the talent and ESPN Gameday will not continue to host its show at HWIs that are not winners.

“Black athletes perfect their talents on fields and courts in urban and
inner-city communities, as well as small towns throughout the country.
Football and basketball players at high schools in communities of color are
asked to leave their culture and community support behind to attend HWIs to
pursue a professional sports career, and that doesn’t seem fair,” said
Elmer Chisholm, partner at BWC Consulting. “Parity and equity are seen on
HBCU campuses where Black-student athletes are well-represented in the
classroom and the field of play, including head coaches and athletic
directors. It is apparent that the value of the Black-student athlete at
HBCUs is appreciated far beyond his or her years on campus.”

Athletic programs at HWIs generate significantly more revenue each year
compared to HBCU athletic programs. This outcome, in large part, is a
result of most student-athletes representing HWIs money-making sports
(e.g., football and basketball) are students of color. BWC believes that
the misalignment between the origin of the money-making talent and the
beneficiaries of the talent must be addressed to ensure long-term financial
vitality at Black institutions.

“Black student-athletes are responsible for the vast majority of revenue
across the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), yet they are
not represented equitably as students, athletic directors or head coaches,”
said Chisholm. “In 2019, across the NCAA, Black male students made up less
than four percent of the overall student body population but represented
more than 50% of the football players and almost 60% of the basketball
players, according to statistics from a report by the University of
Southern California (USC) Race and Equity Center.”

During the fall of 2019, for example, the student body at the University of
Alabama (UA) was comprised of only 10% of Black students. The nationally
recognized football team, by comparison, consisted of approximately 56% of Black players. Consider the average worth of one UA college football player
to the university was $545,357, according to research by the Department of
Education and a Drexel University professor.

In 2018 alone, UA’s sports programs generated over $140 million in revenue
for the school. This example clearly illustrates that Black
student-athletes who attend HWIs in the NCAA have a dollar sign on their
head-one with enough zeros to change their lives, and subsequently, the
quality of life at the institution they choose.

BWC recommends that HBCUs work to increase their chances of attracting the best student-athletes by creating an aggressive recruitment strategy,
attracting the best coaches and building a pipeline of younger
student-athletes interested in the Black college experience. The movement
will require more alumni involvement and greater allocation of dollars to
support leveraging these new funds to attract even greater capital to
support new athletic infrastructure that will aid in the recruitment and
retention of the best and brightest student-athletes. Once the young talent
is secured, the path forward is clear, and the current model that benefits
HWIs provides a reason to believe in the possibilities.

To view the full article, visit:
https://bwcconsulting.com/part-3-of-4-money-flows-to-talent-why-hbcus-must-fight-to-attract-more-top-ranked-black-student-athletes/

To view the first installment, visit:
https://bwcconsulting.com/part-1-of-4-covid-19-and-the-future-of-historically-black-colleges-universities/

To view the second installment visit:
https://bwcconsulting.com/part-2-of-4-covid-19-and-the-future-of-historically-black-colleges-universities/