Saturday, March 1, 2008

FAMU, B-CU strike back at Disney

Schools say they won't play any other team in Orlando

ORLANDO — One mouse won't stop the largest black-college football game in the country from getting its cheese.

"We are looking forward to the Classic staying in Orlando and being bigger than ever," Florida A&M President James Ammons and Bethune-Cookman President Trudie Kibbe Reed said in a joint statement Friday.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY BY CLICKING ON BLOG TITLE.

The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is headed for extinction in Florida before it get started. First, Jackson State has no natural rivalry with any Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference team and Disney clearly misjudged Bethune Cookman. Without a contract with BC-U, JSU has publicly released a schedule claiming that BC-U will play JSU in the Challenge. Not true!

The best MEAC/SWAC game being played in Florida in August (30th) is Alabama State University Hornets at Florida A&M University Rattlers--a natural and long awaited rivalry of the best kind, being played in Bragg Memorial Stadium on the campus of FAMU.

Bethune Cookman and FAMU will not being playing in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge game in Florida, so who in the SWAC and MEAC can draw 60,000 plus fans in Orlando? Nobody, but FAMU and BCU.

Disney and the MEAC Commissioner have no Plan B for this not made for television game. A Mississippi and North Carolina, Delaware, Virgina, Washington, D.C. or Maryland match up won't do squat for putting butts in the seat in the Citrus Bowl. With gas prices approaching $4.00 a gallon by the end of Summer, how many are expected to drive from Mississippi and points north to come to just another game between HBCUs? Few.

The way Disney did this, they won't get my support so move your sponsorship and your MEAC/SWAC game to Mississippi, where folks get excited about Jackson State. Shame on the MEAC Commissioner for trying to encroach upon the Florida Classic brand with Disney. Bad move...

-beepbeep

No comments: