Duane Rankin

Montgomery Advertiser

"Right now, we are in a time of upheavel in college sports." - SIAC commissioner Gregory Moore

Gregory Moore felt compelled at Monday's SIAC Media Day in Montgomery to address what he feels is an alarming problem.

The league commissioner said historically black colleges and universities haven't been a part of the discussions regarding hot-button issues in intercollegiate athletics that could impact HBCUs.

"I believe the gap between the have and have nots is growing to the point where it's becoming alarming," Moore said. "When you have the average payout at a Power 5 conference school exceeds the top line revenue of all the HBCU conferences combined, that's a problem," Moore said. "That should be discussed. No one is talking about it."

Bernard Franklin, NCAA executive vice president and chief inclusion officer, hosted a meeting Moore attended last week in Atlanta with several presidents, chancellors at conference commissioners of HBCU schools.

During that meeting, Moore and others came to the realization that their voices aren't being heard.

"One of the comments in the room was there has been no discussion about black colleges," Moore said. "During (NCAA) president Mark Emmert's three-hour discussion (before the senate commerce committee), no mention of historically black colleges and the impact that all these reforms and deciding changes may have on historically black colleges. I've got to say I'm troubled by that."

On Tuesday, Moore made it clear that HBCUs aren't asking for financial help from schools from the five power leagues, but doesn't want the possible changes resulting from several current hot-button NCAA issues to hurt black schools.

"We don't want any handouts," Moore said. "Make as much money as you can, but it shouldn't come at the expense of us."

Moore calculated the SWAC, MEAC, SIAC and CIAA conferences made roughly "$18 million" total in the academic year, but said each school from power leagues on average made "more than $20 million."

"That doesn't include what they make in the games, their home games, merchandising, their own TV rights," Moore said. "That's just their share of the conference. That doesn't encompass all their revenue. So my feeling is when the average payout to a power conference school, single school, exceeds the total combined revenue of all HBCU conferences, it is approaching a moral crisis, in my view. It's an economic imbalance that, to me, is alarming."

Moore gave an example of how funding can help black colleges. He said Franklin pushed for a $4 million pilot program that uses about $300,000 a year to provide academic support for black schools in Division I. According to Moore, black colleges have received more APR sanctions than "any other group of colleges" in the NCAA, but to him, part of the problem is black schools are being held to the same standards as bigger schools that have a much larger academic budget.

"Tennessee State, Jackson State, none of their programs are facing APR sanctions today," Moore said. "It's a resource that is essential. That program should be made permanent. It should not be a pilot program. It should be a permanent program and it should be expanded."

Moore said the "cruel irony" of the payouts for "Power 5" schools in revenue-generating sports of football and men's basketball is that a large segment of the athletes at those schools in those sports are black males.

"African-American male athletes at power conferences are, to some degree, being depended upon to drive the economic inequity between those conferences and HBCU athletic programs," Moore said. "It is a cruel irony."

On Monday, Moore mentioned five hot-button NCAA topics -- Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, the antitrust lawsuit in California about caps on football and basketball scholarships, the Northwestern case, the "Power 5" conferences looking to possibly create their own division to have more autonomy and NCAA president Mark Emmert facing questions about several concerns at a hearing last month - and said how they could impact black colleges aren't being discussed.

"If you believe in diversity, which everyone professes to believe in, then you have to believe in protecting and exploring all these changes and how they will impact historically black colleges and universities," Moore said.

Moore said HBCUs "remains the single most important repository of diversity in intercollegiate athletics" despite making up just five percent of the NCAA's 1,100 member institutions. He made a point to say that 40 percent of the black NCAA football coaches, 50 percent of the athletic directors and "almost 90 percent" of the conference commissioners are from black schools.

So Moore wants some schools from the "Power 5' conferences to support HBCU schools because "they share footprints with our conferences" in part because the black schools provide diversity to the NCAA.

"My suggestion is we institutionalize and make it formal program where Division I power conferences are helping and nurturing some of the HBCU conferences," Moore said.

Moore said there are already "informal cross-pollination taking place" as he pointed out that basketball official Tony Greene, who referred in the 2013 national title game, got his start in the SIAC. He proceeded to point out that Leon Douglas and E.J. Junior, who both were athletes at Alabama, got their coaching starts at SIAC schools.

Douglas resigned at Tuskegee earlier this month after leading the Tigers to the Elite Eight of NCAA Division II tournament.

"Talent flows both ways," Moore said.