Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) To Receive MEAC/SWAC Sports Main Street Global Exposure

GCAC president Kiki Baker Barnes

The Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) and its member institutions of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division I level, need our support for their athletic programs.

The GCAC was established in 1981 and recently (2010) went through a major transformation with the six (6) non-HBCU institutions leaving for the Southern States Athletic Conference and the Red River Athletic Conference. This move left six (6) small, mostly private HBCUs institutions under the GCAC banner.

The president of the GCAC is Dillard University's Athletic Director and head women's basketball coach Kiki Baker Barnes. Barnes was unanimously voted in by her peers as the 17th president of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference at the 2009 fall meetings, making her the first African-American woman to hold the position.

She is one of only two African-Americans named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' (NAIA) newly formed National Administrative Council and a member of the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) professional organization. Upon her installation as conference president, Barnes stated, "now is a critical time in the history of the conference as it attempts to draw new members and build new rivalries, and I look forward to the challenge."

Talladega College will be leaving the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) and will be rejoining the GCAC in 2011-12 academic year, along with Philander Smith College  (Little Rock, AR). Voorhees College decided in July 2010 not to accept an invitation to join the conference. Further expansion of the GCAC remains one of the conference's most important goals, in addition to raising its profile and sports branding by member institutions.

The conference fields 13 sports programs--Men's Basketball, Golf, Soccer, Cross Country, Track and Field, Tennis and Baseball; and Women's Softball, Volleyball, Basketball, Cross Country, Track and Field, and Tennis. Not all institutions are able to field teams in each sport, and may have as few as three programs, like Fisk University. Playoff bids for sports like tennis, soccer, baseball and golf will have to come by way of play-in tournament games with the NAIA's Association of Independent Institutions.

Current GCAC member institutions are: (click each name for auto link to each college athletic website)

1. Dillard University Bleu Devils, New Orleans, LA
2. Edward Waters College Tigers, Jacksonville, FL
3. Fisk University Bulldogs, Nashville, TN
4. Southern University at New Orleans Knights, New Orleans, LA
5. Tougaloo College Bulldogs, Tougaloo, MS
6. Xavier University of Louisiana Gold Rush/Gold Nuggets, New Orleans, LA
7. Talladega College Tornadoes, Talladega, AL
8. Philander Smith College Panthers, Little Rock, AR

Edward Waters College is the only football playing member of the conference and plays as an NAIA Independent for football. The EWC Tigers recently selected Bethune-Cookman University's assistant Brad Bernard as its new head football coach. Bernard tapped B-CU assistant coach Greg Ross as the Tigers new offensive coordinator and Millsaps College (Miss.) assistant Lane Powell as his defensive coordinator.

The basketball powerhouses this season are Tougaloo Bulldogs (27-4) and Xavier Gold Rush (men) (27-5) that are bracketed in the NAIA Division I National Championship Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri on March 16-22.  The Xavier Gold Nuggets women's team (26-6) are also participants in the national championship tournament in Kansas City.

Many thanks to Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director at Xavier University of Louisiana who has been sending us stories on the Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets nationally ranked Tennis Teams. This pushed us to take a closer look at what was going on with the GCAC and examine the historic academic powerhouses that are charter member institutions, i.e., Dillard University, Tougaloo College and Xavier University of Louisiana.

Check back often for links to articles on our student-athletes from the fifth HBCU conference -- the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.

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VISIT: the naiasports and GCAConf.com

Videographer: ewc1777; Edward Waters College Triple Threat Marching Band vs. North Carolina Central University Marching Sound Machine ( Nov. 2010)