The Game that Shouldn’t but Needed to be Played
Takeaways from the Florida A&M/UNC Week Zero Game
FAMU was paid to $450,000 for its football team to play a game Kenan Memorial Stadium. An additional condition of the payment was for The Florida A&M Marching 100 to play with The Marching Tar Heels (a.k.a. The Pride of the ACC) before the game and at halftime.
These “money” games are meant to be a tune-up game (easy win) for the bigger schools and as a way to fund the athletic departments for smaller schools. When you can add an often-requested brand like The Marching 100, this incentivizes both the home and away team to attend the game.
The game was supposed to be played, UNC was supposed to win, and a fun time was supposed to be had by all.
However, the news of more than 20 football players being ineligible at FAMU along with the remaining players voicing concern about their health and safety became public. Suddenly, all the above became in jeopardy. Instead of FAMU being paid $450,000, they would have ultimately owed UNC $450,000. Of course, the money and the desire to play ultimately won out and the game was played.
Here are my takeaways from the game.
- The Elephant in the Room
Full disclosure, I am proud graduate of Florida A&M University but I would remiss to see that the eligibility issue was a failure on all levels from some players not taking personal responsibility on pushing the university about their academics and eligibility, to coach Simmons either not knowing (or informing publicly) in enough time that there was a problem that affected nearly a third of his team, all the way to the Athletic Director and the President for not having the right or the right amount of people in Academics and Compliance to help remedy this issue before it got of control. It is especially concerning because this is a long-standing and recurring issue.
But just because it was failure; it doesn’t mean that is not understandable. It also doesn’t mean that somebody needs to be reprimanded. Too many times HBCUs have to “rob Peter to pay Paul” because of a lack of resources. This extends way past the athletic department to even items that most schools would think is fundamental (i.e., housing).
FAMU on its website has 1 compliance individual on their staff; compare that to UNC who has 5. That can simply be the difference between a controversy that affects the actual game versus one that doesn’t.
What’s most infuriating is that this is a new issue. Coach Simmons himself dealt with a transfer issue as a player himself. When FAMU (unsuccessfully) tried to move up, it caused Simmons to be ineligible to transfer from Clemson to FAMU. As a result, he ended up playing at The Citadel. It had to be a weird case of a Deja vu since once of his biggest moment as a player came at UNC when he led the Clemson Tigers to victory against the Tar Heels.
This is ultimately a scenario where I believe the conference has to step in. The SEC or the Big Ten can depend on their member schools having enough resources to remedy any compliance issue that can come their way. The SWAC (and the MEAC) are those that cannot. It would be nice if the league can come together to help be an additional resource for teams.
2. Seizing the Moment
One thing that FAMU has always prided itself on was providing opportunities to those would not have otherwise. In fact, that is the main reason why HBCU were created in the first person; to provide opportunities to African Americans who were not allowed on predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Contrary to what some may believe, this need is still there even though all schools became de-segregated.
Jeremy Mousa is a representation of that story. His career span from the University of Hawaii to FAMU by the way of San Bernardino Valley College and Vanderbilt University. As a senior, he was looking for a place to prove that he can play at a high level of D1 Football. He could have gotten a shot somewhere else, but he got at a HBCU.
When he got the opportunity (with NFL scouts in attendance), he made the most out of the opportunity. On that a day that was supposed to highlight freshman Drake Maye taking over from Sam Howell, Jeremy Mousa more than enough held his own. The same can be said for fellow rattlers Xavier Smith and Nadarius Fagan. Honestly, it can be said about the entire team made the most of its opportunity especially the offensive line which was particularly affected by eligibility and injury issues. In a game where UNC was favored by 45 points, the 56–24 score doesn’t do justice on how close the game was.
3. The Big Game
This game was important for the reasons mentioned above but arguably the biggest game of the year for FAMU, Jackson State and HBCU Football comes next week when FAMU plays the Jackson State Tigers in Miami. Both teams had exceptional seasons last year but for them to be successful moving forward, they have to play better when expectations are high. Last season ended on a sour note as Jackson State lost the Celebration and FAMU underperformed in a first-round playoff loss to Southeast Louisiana. Last season’s Labor Day Game was a celebration of what HBCU Football could be on a national stage. This game should be a celebration what HBCU Football is on a national stage.
4. The Awkwardness of a HBCU Celebration Game
Coach Mack Brown is known to be a big supporter of HBCUs, and the University of North Carolina did a great job of highlighting and celebrating what is known the HBCU Celebration game with other activities such as a Career Fest, a Greek stroll-off competition, and recognition of UNC faculty and staff that are HBCU alums as well as prominent African American graduates of UNC. They are to be saluted for working with the HBCU Heroes for putting this together.
With that being said, it highlighted the fact that this celebration should have also been done at home at a HBCU. For you to truly celebrate a culture, you have to experience it first-hand. When is the last time that a PWI D-1 team have visited a HBCU on the home campus? This is the reason that if a HBCU makes the playoff this year, they should strive for it to be played at home. This is another instance where the SWAC, the most likely conference to send a HBCU, has to make sure that each of their teams can provide a financial bid that will persuade the playoff committee to schedule them for a home game since this rising tide would help lift all boats.
Thanks for reading!
For my reader recommendation for more info on the College Football season: check out this article by Matt Patton
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