Black college football national championship
The black college football national championship is a national championship won by the best football teams among historically black colleges and universities in the United States.
History
In college football's early years, HBCUs generally lacked the opportunity to compete against predominantly white schools due to segregation, which was practiced in much of the U.S. at the time—leaving HBCUs with few scheduling options other than to play games among themselves only and sponsor their own championships.The first football game between HBCU schools was played on December 27, 1892. On that day Johnson C. Smith defeated Livingstone College. As it was the only game played by HBCU schools that year, Johnson C. Smith's team could no doubt claim to be that season's HBCU national champions by default. However, the earliest documented claim to such a title was Livingstone's 1906 team, led by captain Benjamin Butler "Ben" Church. It is not immediately clear who exactly determined that Livingstone was the best team—or if they simply declared themselves champions.
Initially, starting in 1920, HBCU national champions were designated by the Pittsburgh Courier at the end of the season. The following year others more directly associated with the schools themselves made their own attempts to crown a champion, coordinating their efforts under the auspices of the Champion Aggregation of All Conferences. The CAAC's initiative was fostered by Paul Jones, who reported the champion annually in his column in Spalding's Intercollegiate Football Guide.
The first prominent game between an HBCU and predominantly white institution occurred in the 1948 Fruit Bowl when Southern defeated San Francisco State, 30–0. Five years later HBCUs began to gravitate over to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics because it offered numerous athletic competition options, was oriented primarily toward smaller institutions, and had also begun openly welcoming schools of varying demographic backgrounds as members. At present most HBCUs are now members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. However, designating an annual black national champion has remained a popular tradition, even as HBCUs have successfully challenged majority white schools for football championships for decades now, within the framework of both NCAA and NAIA competition; this includes Associated Press, United Press International, NCAA, and NAIA-sponsored titles for the 1962, 1973, 1978, 1990, 1992, and 1995 seasons, as well as runner-up finishes in 1963, 1983, 1991, 1994, and 2012.
Noteworthy team accomplishments include the sixteen HBCU championships won all-time by Tennessee State and the five won consecutively by Central State from 1986–90. Florida A&M has won titles in eight different decades. Southern, Prairie View A&M, Tuskegee, and North Carolina A&T have each achieved the best single-season won–loss record of 12–0. Winston–Salem State has achieved the best single-season win total of 14.
Noteworthy coaching accomplishments include the nine HBCU championships won by Joe, John Merritt, and Eddie Robinson. Rod Broadway is the only coach to have won titles at three different schools. Jay Hopson is the only white coach to have won a title.
Championship bowl games
Attempts have been made over the years to determine a non-mythical national champion with an actual football game contested by leading teams among HBCUs throughout the United States. The Orange Blossom Classic was often billed as such a game, but Florida A&M, as its annual host, was guaranteed a spot in this game and was not necessarily national championship-caliber each and every year that it was played.Contests including the Colored Championship games of 1920 and 1923, the Chocolate Bowl, the Steel and Vulcan bowls, the National Bowl, and the National Football Classic were attempted periodically but without any sustained success.
The Pelican Bowl, a bowl game that tried to match up the conference champions from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference, was another such example—and actually did manage to last several seasons—but even this venture failed to draw enough attendance and lasted only a few years in the 1970s. Similarly, the Heritage Bowl was played in the 1990s featuring teams from the MEAC and SWAC, but this bowl game has not been held since 1999 and was often snubbed by the conference champions in lieu of the NCAA's Division I-AA playoffs; indeed, five teams of the Heritage Bowl era were still able to claim black national titles from various selectors after declining their bids to the bowl game.
Celebration Bowl
The MEAC and SWAC began negotiations in 2010 to create a successor called the "Legacy Bowl"—not to be confused with the later exhibition game with the same name—to begin during the 2011 postseason, but it was voted down by MEAC officials. However, in 2015, the first Celebration Bowl was played, pitting the champions of both conferences. While the Celebration Bowl's trophy itself only includes the inscription "Celebration Bowl Champions," the bowl's creator, as well as its title sponsor and other prominent sponsors, have indicated that it is for the HBCU national title—as have coaches of participating teams, the two competing conferences, and even the NCAA. However, with Tennessee State being a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, the Celebration Bowl could not fully represent all HBCUs within the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision. Further more, Hampton has since withdrawn from the MEAC to join the Big South Conference—despite watching Tennessee State's program struggle to a losing record in games played since joining the OVC in 1988. This is not the first time that some individual schools have been isolated from the HBCU championship process; in 1960 the Associated Negro Press stated: "A total of 76 Negro colleges played football during the past season. Cheyney and Langston were not considered in rating because most of their games were against non-Negro colleges."In other sports
While black national champions have been crowned regularly in football for nearly a century now, the concept has only recently caught on with other sports. HBCU baseball and HBCU men and women's basketball teams now have their own respective ranking systems. There are also now HBCU tournaments for golf and tennis.Selectors
Not all black national championships are determined the same way. Early poll rankings were for the best overall HBCU, while bowl games often matched champions of only two specific HBCU conferences. However, the NCAA and NAIA later split into divisions, and newer selectors have tended to rank HBCU members by division only. The variations between how champions have been selected over the years has not been completely without controversy—partly because of the issue of NCAA Division II and NAIA schools being ranked higher than FCS schools and partly because of the concern that the voters in the polls may not necessarily be well-informed about so many different schools. However, the issue may have been somewhat ameliorated when American Sports Wire began limiting HBCU champions to FCS-level schools only in an era when an NAIA school held a stranglehold over the overall HBCU championship—possibly in part because NAIA schools were not effected by the NCAA's Proposition 48, a then-new rule that had concerned some educators about its impact on black student-athletes.The impact of the Pelican, Heritage, and Celebration bowls cannot be overstated, however. In the 16 seasons that those bowl games were held, MEAC or SWAC schools were named overall HBCU champions almost exclusively; only in 1992 did a school with no ties to the MEAC or SWAC even earn a share of the overall HBCU championship—two selectors still chose a SWAC school as the overall champion but one selector did choose Central State. In 1994 soon-to-be MEAC member Hampton was named HBCU overall champ by a single selector while five other selectors gave the title to full MEAC member South Carolina State.
| Selector | Name | Seasons | Eligible teams |
| ADW | Atlanta Daily World & 100% Wrong Club–W. A. Scott II Memorial Trophy ; Coca-Cola National Historical Black College Football Championship Award | 1953–2010 ' | all HBCU teams |
| AHSR-I | Add's HBCU Sports Report for Division I teams | 2013–2016 | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| AHSR-II | Add's HBCU Sports Report for Division II teams | 2013–2016 | NCAA Division II HBCU teams only |
| ANP | Associated Negro Press | 1948–1960 ' | all HBCU teams |
| ASW | American Sports Wire | 1990–2013 | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| B-CP | BOXTOROW –Coaches Poll | 2009–present | all HBCU teams |
| B-MP | BOXTOROW –Media Poll | 2007–present | all HBCU teams |
| BAA | Baltimore Afro-American | 1947–1948, 1953 | all HBCU teams |
| BCASB | Black College All Star Bowl—Eddie Hurt National Championship Trophy | 1978–1979 | all HBCU teams |
| BCNC-I | Black College National Championship for Division I teams | 2016–present | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| BCNC-II&N | Black College National Championship for Division II and NAIA teams | 2016–present | NCAA Division II and NAIA HBCU teams only |
| BCSN-I | Black College Sports Network for Division I teams | 2019 | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| BCSN-II&N | Black College Sports Network for Division II and NAIA teams | 2019 | NCAA Division II and NAIA HBCU teams only |
| BCSP | Black College Sports Page | 1994–present ' | all HBCU teams |
| BCSR | Black College Sports Report | 1993 | all HBCU teams |
| CAAC | Champion Aggregation of All Conferences | 1921–1949 ' | all HBCU teams |
| CC | Colored Championship game | 1920, 1923 | all HBCU teams |
| "Celebration Bowl" AFRCB CeB | Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl Celebration Bowl | 2015–present 2015–2016, 2018 2017, 2019 | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
| ChB | Chocolate Bowl | 1935 | all HBCU teams |
| DCCC-M | Dr. Cavil's Classic Cuts –Major Division Poll | 2002–present ' | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| DCCC-MM | Dr. Cavil's Classic Cuts –Mid-Major Division Poll | 2002–present ' | NCAA Division II and NAIA HBCU teams only |
| "Heritage Bowl" AHB HB | Alamo Heritage Bowl I Heritage Bowl IV | 1991, 1994* 1991 1994 | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
| HBCUS-PFP | HBCUSports.com–Playoff Fan Poll | 2014 | all HBCU teams |
| HBCUS-UP | HBCUSports.com–Ultimate Poll | 2015, 2019 | all HBCU teams |
| HSRN-I | Heritage Sports Radio Network–HSRN Conaway Cup for Division I teams | 2011–2016 | NCAA Division I–FCS HBCU teams only |
| HSRN-II&N | Heritage Sports Radio Network–HSRN Conaway Cup for Division II and NAIA teams | 2011–2016 | NCAA Division II and NAIA HBCU teams only |
| J | Jet —Paul Robeson Perpetual Trophy | 1973–1987, 1990–1992 | all HBCU teams |
| JBM | John B. "Johnny" McLendon, Jr. based on the Dickinson System | 1953 | all HBCU teams |
| LAFCF | Los Angeles Football Classic Foundation –Eddie G. Robinson Trophy | 1988 | all HBCU teams |
| MBN | Mutual Black Network | 1972–1977 | all HBCU teams |
| NB | National Bowl | 1947 | all HBCU teams |
| NBTV | National Black Television | 2011 | all HBCU teams |
| NFC | National Football Classic | 1954 | CIAA and Midwestern Conference champions only |
| PB | Pelican Bowl | 1972, 1974–1975* | MEAC and SWAC champions only |
| PCWDC | Pigskin Club of Washington, DC—William G. "Billy" Coward Award | 2006–2013 | all HBCU teams |
| "Sheridan Poll" PC NPC SBN AURN PNRN | Jake Gaither National Championship Trophy Pittsburgh Courier New Pittsburgh Courier Sheridan Broadcasting Network American Urban Radio Networks Power News Radio Network | 1920–present 1920–1965 1966–1978 1979–1990 1991–2016 2017–Present | all HBCU teams |
| TAJTT | T. A. Jones' Talented 10th | 2014 | all HBCU teams |
| UMT | UrbanMediaToday.com | 2017–Present | all HBCU teams |
| "Vulcan Bowl" SB VB | Steel Bowl Vulcan Bowl | 1940–1941** 1940 1941 | all HBCU teams |
Notes: *—the Pelican Bowl and Heritage Bowl were intended as black national championship games matching the outright champions or top-seeded co-champions of the MEAC and SWAC conferences, but in practice the top seeds often declined their automatic bids to participate in the NCAA playoffs instead—only the 1972, 1975, and 1994 games matched the top seeds of both conferences as originally intended, although the Pelican Bowl is known to have been promoted as a black national championship game all three seasons ; **—the Steel Bowl/Vulcan Bowl is known to have been promoted as a black national championship game after the 1940 and 1941 seasons