Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Morgan State Athletic Director Kerr Announces Retirement

FLOYD KERR
COURTESY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

BALTIMORE, Maryland -- Floyd Kerr, director of Morgan State University’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, today informed President David Wilson of his decision to retire at the end of this academic year. Kerr has served as Morgan’s athletic director since July 17, 2005.

“I appreciate Floyd‘s service to the University during his time here. There have been many noteworthy achievements, including a successful basketball program and winning a football conference championship. We certainly wish him well in the future and hope he will enjoy his retirement years,” said Dr. Wilson. “I am immediately launching a national search for a new athletic director.”

Kerr oversees a program at Morgan with 15 varsity sports and over 280 student-athletes. During his tenure, Morgan’s men’s basketball team racked up three league championships, winning two Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championships. The Bears football team achieved a MEAC co-championship during the 2014 “Return to Greatness” season.

Kerr says his retirement from Morgan is effective June 30, 2016. President Wilson has indicated that an interim director will be appointed if the national search does not conclude by June 30, 2016.

Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 45 academic programs leading to the baccalaureate degree and more than 50 programs at the master’s and doctoral levels. As Maryland’s public urban university, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.

COURTESY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS

FAMU trending up among MEAC budgets

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Florida A&M’s athletic department is still looking for solutions to a mountain of cash-related issues.

Still, in 2015, among MEAC schools, the department was trending in the right direction.

According to USA Today’s annual analysis of NCAA finances, the Rattlers were third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in both total revenue ($12,376,884) and total expenses ($12,351,742). FAMU’s total reported revenue was actually down when compared to 2014, however the department saw decreases in student fees and school funds.

New Athletic Director Milton Overton Jr., who worked as a senior AD at Alabama during the 2014-15 fiscal year and didn’t officially start at FAMU until Aug. 3, said he looked at trends in the recently-released report.

Overton said the most encouraging number in the report was the percent of the athletic department subsidized by the university. FAMU’s athletic department received $8,574,513 in school funds and student fees for 2014-15, 69 percent of the revenue reported for the department.

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Monday, April 25, 2016

Alcorn, JSU, MVSU each facing their own challenges

JACKSON, Mississippi -- As the final whistle blew at Alcorn State's spring game on Saturday, it brought an end to spring practice for the three SWAC football programs in Mississippi.

Braves coach Fred McNair and Jackson State coach Tony Hughes just completed their first spring at their respective schools, while Rick Comegy is set to embark on his third season at Mississippi Valley State.

But each coach and team faces a different set of challenges as their team moves into a quiet part of the calendar.

At Alcorn State, McNair, who was hired as the Braves' coach in February, is trying to keep the ball rolling after former coach Jay Hopson, now at Southern Miss, won back-to-back SWAC championships in 2014 and 2015 and appeared in the first-ever Celebration Bowl.

"The mold has already been set," McNair said during the SWAC's conference call on Monday. "The only thing we have to do is keep molding kids into championship form, which they are. Now we just have to turn them in the right direction."

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Florida A&M Rattlers get series victory over Tigers

FAMU has a three-game series against top-ranked Miami in Coral Gables next. 
All three games will be broadcast on ESPN3.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Florida A&M’s baseball team isn’t firing on all cylinders – head coach Jamey Shouppe is the first one to admit that.

Still, the Rattlers are doing enough. The team defeated Savannah State 9-6 on Sunday in front of a home crowd of 303 for another MEAC series win. It was the team’s 24th win of the season, which means the Rattlers have more wins than last season with 12 games to go.

The win also guaranteed the Rattlers a spot in the MEAC tournament.

“We’ve just got to weather this,” Shouppe said. “We’re not firing on all cylinders. We’re not getting breaks. We’re not making breaks. We’re not having good at-bats. I think we’re pressing a little bit, if that makes any sense at all.

“We talked about that as a team. I saw a team earlier this season that wasn’t firing on all cylinders and got blown out by Mercer and had lost five out of six. Then all of the sudden we beat Mercer and go on a 10-game winning streak. We’ve just got to ride this out.”

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Southern looks ahead while other SWAC teams reflect on spring practice

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Nine of the 10 Southwestern Athletic Conference football coaches on a teleconference with the media Monday morning summarized their recently completed spring practices.

The league’s three new coaches — former LSU assistant Michael Haywood (Texas Southern), Fred McNair (Alcorn State) and Tony Hughes (Jackson State) — talked about their impressions of the talent they inherited and the transition to a new coaching staff.

Generally, the veteran coaches — ranging from Arkansas-Pine Bluff coach Monte Coleman, the dean of SWAC coaches as he prepares for his ninth season, to second-year coaches Willie Simmons of Prairie View and Brian Jenkins of Alabama State — talked about the latest steps in their building or rebuilding projects.

But Southern coach Dawson Odums was left to talk about being unable to conduct spring practice for a second consecutive year. The Jaguars have been forbidden from conducting the normal 15 spring practices in order to complete previous NCAA sanctions.

On top of that, Southern learned last week that the latest round of insufficient Academic Progress Rates will cost it spring practice in 2017, and it will be ineligible for the 2016 Celebration Bowl, which matches the champions of the SWAC and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

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Coaching change brings intrigue to SWAC football

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Spring practices have wrapped up across the Southwestern Athletic Conference with teams full of the usual optimism.

And intrigue about what to expect from each other.

Who's coming and who's going - especially among coaching staffs - have become a part of the SWAC. Eight of the 10 teams have installed new coaches since the 2013 season ended, and this year there are three new ones, including Jackson State for the second time in three years.

It creates plenty of unknowns and unpredictability within the conference. Last year, that aspect reached the point to which teams struggled to win at home, going a combined 16-26 in conference matchups.

This year, many of the rosters have a high number of returning starters, APR academic penalties have been limited once again, and new coaches at Alcorn State (Fred McNair), Jackson State (Tony Hughes) and Texas Southern (Michael Haywood) have teams adjusting for the season ahead.

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Sunday, April 24, 2016

LINCOLN SPRING GAME 2016: PHOTOS AND HIGHLIGHTS



JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri -- The Lincoln football team wrapped up its 2016 spring season with its annual spring game on Saturday (April 23). The Blue Tigers got some work in at all three facets of the game, and there were plenty of highlights to go around. There were crazy touchdown catches, unbelievable interceptions, hard hits, great kicks and one fantastic escape from a sure tackle that you'll just have to see to believe. Check out the highlights from Saturday's spring game above. Also, check out the below photo gallery featuring 33 images from the action at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.

Photo Gallery: 2016 Lincoln Spring Game

Photos by Dan Carr, Video by Steven Benton
COURTESY LINCOLN UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS