A highly respected HBCU sports program will win the national championship. They have the talent, coaching and financial backing to pull off the feat.
Football, right? No. Surely basketball? Nope. volleyball, soccer or golf? Get out of town.
Next to women’s bowling, I am talking baseball.
Here is why.
While an HBCU baseball program being ranked in the Top 25 is rare, black college baseball programs are closer to winning on the national level than the football and basketball bread winners will ever be.
The Diamond Jaguars of Southern University have been to the NCAA Tournament more times than any program in SWAC history, and have recorded victories over the likes of Tulane, Southern Mississippi and SEC powerhouse LSU in recent years.
In a spoiler role, Texas Southern University defeated the three-time national champion Rice Owls in 2004. And last season, Bethune-Cookman lost a squeaker to No. 1 Miami 7-4 in Coral Gables.
This is progress, and its something that seems to be moving at a quicker pace than on the hardwood and the gridiron. Save for South Carolina State’s strong showing against Appalachian State in the 2008 FCS playoffs, rare is the opportunity for an HBCU football program to come close to a win against a BCS school or top FCS title contender. A SWAC school has not a won a FCS playoff game in 17 years.
Basketball, even with its recent history of tournament success from MEAC programs like Coppin State and Hampton, still yields wide margins of defeats that tip the scales of embarrassment. UCLA’s beat down of Mississippi Valley State in the NCAA national tournament is a prime example of how disparate the gap is.
Not so in baseball.
Even though the NCAA only allows baseball programs 11.5 scholarships, accumulating quality athletes is not that big of a hurdle. Compared to the dishonest recruiting Signing Day practices that have ravaged prep stars in other sports, and the amount of sanctions that have shaken black college athletic programs in football and basketball, baseball players just want the opportunity to showcase their skills on any available diamond.
It also does not hurt that MLB scouts evaluate all 95 mph fastballs and 400-foot homers the same way. No matter the school.
Most of all, baseball programs throughout the HBCU landscape have not only reached out to solid black athletes, but white and Latin athletes as well, making for one of the best recruiting mechanisms to create diversity on black college campuses. There’s no coincidence that the infusion of multi-racial talent has made bottom feeders into contenders in tight conference races.
The College World Series might appear to be a pipe dream for some. But in relation to other major black college sports, baseball is the diamond in the rough for national prominence.
