In a few weeks, the four HBCU conferences – the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC & SWAC – will need to make room at nation’s the table for a newcomer. The revamped Gulf Coast Athletic Conference will begin life with six historically black colleges and universities after 29 years as a mixed league. Dillard University, Edward Waters College, Fisk, Southern University-New Orleans, Tougaloo and Xavier of Louisiana will try to keep the conference alive after six former members – all predominantly white institutions -- departed for greener pastures.When the 2009-10 athletic season finished back in June, the GCAC had 10 members. But, LSU-Shreveport left to join the Red River Athletic Conference. Belhaven, Loyola of New Orleans, Mobile, Spring Hill and William Carey joined the expanding Southern States Athletic Conference in a bid for more exposure, according to New Orleans Small College Examiner Eddie Francis. That left GCAC with just four teams – Dillard, SUNO, Tougaloo and Xavier. Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director at Xavier, explained that the conference needed six members to keep its automatic bids to the various NAIA tournaments. Otherwise, members would have to participate in a preliminary tournament with the Association of Independent Institutions for the chance to go to the playoffs.
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