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It’s been 9 years, and there’s nonetheless one thing that doesn’t sit proper with Maryland touring to Iowa on a Wednesday night time for a Huge Ten matchup, bypassing longtime ACC rivals like Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. However convention realignment hasn’t solely impacted the excessive majors; it’s had a ripple impact on among the most historic HBCU conferences and the respective packages that make up these conferences. Case and level: Hampton College.
After 22 years, Hampton introduced it was leaving the MEAC in 2017. Within the six years since, Hampton has moved conferences twice, first to the Huge South after which to the Colonial Athletic Affiliation (CAA) final year-each transfer marking a major uptick in competitors.
“I hate to say it, however the first yr [in the CAA] was a impolite awakening,” says Hampton head coach Edward Joyner Jr., who’s been with this system since 2006. “But it surely was additionally an thrilling new endeavor that we had been keen and able to bounce into. Going into our second yr, we’re elevating the bar for ourselves with what we’re recruiting and what we’re attempting to do to place ourselves in place. We’re able to profitable some ball video games and attempting to play with the elite within the convention.”
Regardless of not being within the MEAC, Coach Joyner has made it some extent for his program to not overlook the HBCU neighborhood it’s part of. He intends to maintain the rivalries deeply rooted within the material of Hampton basketball, like these with Howard and crosstown rivals Norfolk State. “We’ve tried to maintain our conventional rivals,” Joyner says, “so we don’t lose the distinctiveness of being an HBCU though we left the convention.”
For the 2023-24 marketing campaign, Hampton was voted to complete thirteenth out of 14 within the CAA preseason rankings. However Coach Joyner says he relishes being neglected and proving naysayers improper. “If you say chip in your shoulder-that shit ain’t no chip, it’s a boulder,” he says emphatically. “Proper now, we’re taking part in for one thing greater than us. We’re in a second the place [HBCUs] are being checked out via us. That’s what we preach daily. Our strain is a distinct strain, however in the event you don’t need that strain, don’t come. Why not attempt to develop into the usual?”
Pictures through Getty Pictures.
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