HBCUs have a 10-game losing streak in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs following South Carolina State’s 37-21 first-round loss to Appalachian State last weekend, and no HBCU has advanced out of the first round since Florida A&M reached the semifinals in 1999.

However, South Carolina State’s performance against the three-time defending champions is an indication that the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is closing the gap on the FCS field.

The Bulldogs, who led 7-0 in the first period, were only behind by three points, 24-21, with nine minutes remaining in the game and never looked as though didn’t belong on the same field with the second-ranked Mountaineers, who a year ago shocked the college football world by going on the road beating Michigan. Bulldogs running back Will Ford, the MEAC Offensive Player of the Year, rushed 117 yards against the Mountaineers.

“We are closing," South Carolina State Coach Buddy Pough says. “Our league is improving. You can take the top guys, and they will match up with anybody. Programs have gotten the understanding of what it takes to play at this level."

Pough says that understanding has come from MEAC schools’ willingness to schedule non-traditional opponents outside the conference, such as Clemson, the University of Central Florida, Rutgers, Kent State, Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Coastal Carolina, William & Mary and Towson University.

“We mix it up enough with these programs so we can emulate and do what they do," Pough says, “and our kids are coached up the same way they are."

ESPNU college football analyst Jay Walker, an All-American quarterback when he played in the MEAC at Howard University in the mid-1990s, says the technological advances that Commissioner Dennis Thomas has introduced have played a significant role in conference members’ ability to compete with other FCS schools. Thomas was instrumental in schools upgrading film exchange procedures.

“I remember a couple of games, where you talk to coaches (who were playing MEAC schools)," Walker says, “and they would say, ‘These guys are faster, stronger, bigger and better.’ I would ask how are they going to beat them, and they’d have a twinkle in their eye. They would break down film and dissect it and find their weaknesses."

Walker says those days are in the past.

“Commissioner Thomas made an investment in technology, and it’s paying off," he says. Football is all about film study and preparation. Now they have the ability to increase players’ football IQ.  It allows them to put athletes in position to make a play.

MEAC schools use LRS, the leading video system, which is used nationwide and gives coaches greater clarity and more flexibility than videotape afforded them. The MEAC has also implemented Dragon Fly video exchange which allows for exchanging game videos by Internet instead of sending videotape by next delivery or driving to deliver videotape as in the past. Dragon Fly allows coaches to upload and download game videos to their laptops or personal computers, and in a matter of minutes, they have game tapes.

“We’re on the cutting edge," Thomas says. “You get a better grade of film. Before, coaches would cut out certain plays. Now everybody has good tape and there is no coaching advantage."

Florida A&M Coach Joe Taylor, who guided the Rattlers to a second-place finish in his first season at the helm, says the next challenge for MEAC schools is to gain parity with other FCS schools on issues surrounding the playoffs. That means hosting games, receiving high seeds and having multiple teams in the field.
   
The 16-team field consists of eight conference champions (MEAC, Southern Conference, Colonial Athletic Association, Big Sky Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Patriot .....

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