This is a big deal and a huge step of progress for HBCU athletics programs. I am a proud graduate of the Howard School of Law, and I’d love to see more athletes consider competing for an HBCU! https://twitter.com/theundefeated/status/1279028804984483841

Having said that, I hope this brings attention to the institutional barriers that have afflicted HBCUs within the NCAA structure. As lower resources institutions, HBCUs are expected to compete with other D-I programs while operating on razor thin budgets and with old facilities.

For decades, the best Black high school athletes went to HBCUs because the majority of state and private institutions maintained unwritten covenants that kept their athletic programs all-white. This was even after the abolition of “separate but equal” as law.

Think Walter Payton at Jackson State. Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State. Althea Gibson and Andre Dawson at FAMU. Wilma Rudolph at Tennessee State. Willis Reed at Grambling. Lou Brock at Southern. Edwin Moses at Morehouse. World-class athletic legacy.

But when predominantly white institutions began following the lead of schools like Notre Dame and USC, who recruited Black athletes throughout the entire 20th Century, HBCUs started losing out on much of the top athletic talents.

As commercialism of college athletics exploded, HBCU athletics programs suffered severely. Despite many athletic successes in the past few decades, there has been little to no national successes and recruitment of top Black athletic talent in the revenue sports.