Legacy Bowl decision off until spring

What looked like a full-speed effort toward holding the Legacy Bowl has apparently slowed down for now.

On Monday, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dennis Thomas said the conference's executive council is still involved in the vetting process on the viability of the joint venture with the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It now appears a final vote on whether to participate in the ESPN-sponsored postseason football game will not take place in the fall as Thomas previously indicated, but instead will be pushed to as late as March 2011.

The news comes six days after a teleconference with council members and a week after Thomas sent a response letter to ....

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.

How the Legacy Bowl could ruin S.C. State football

Orangeburg, S.C. -- (Excerpts) : South Carolina State has finally come clean about the Legacy Bowl. Around a month after Florida A&M issued a statement denouncing the bowl, earlier this week, the school issued a press release confirming that it, along with the rest of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, are engaged in talks regarding a potential Legacy Bowl that would put the winner of the MEAC against the winner of the SWAC at the end of the 2011 season.

All interview requests by T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr., directed to South Carolina State President George Cooper and Athletic Director Charlene Johnson were rejected. Looking at things from Johnson and Cooper's point of view, and for that matter the MEAC's, and in their defense, the game may actually provide an initial financial benefit. But, it's also a very near-sighted move, especially for South Carolina State.

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.

READ RELATED ARTICLES:
MEAC'S Thomas: Bowl vote in fall

Commissioner: Legacy Bowl 'no-brainer' for SWAC

MEAC shifts schedules, moves to 2 divisions in most sports
Proposed Legacy Bowl game has an uncertain future »

Commissioner tries to calm Legacy controversy

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas refuses to answer the Press questions regarding the ESPN Legacy Bowl proposal. Thomas instead took a swipe at Bloggers and fans who have expressed strong opposition to dropping the conference automatic berth to the Football Championship Subdivision (1-AA) Playoffs.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. --Amid the storm of controversy surrounding the proposed Legacy Bowl, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference commissioner Dennis Thomas has attempted to maintain a calm front. Aside from comments made in June confirming the possibility of ESPN reviving the Heritage Bowl under a new aforementioned moniker with the MEAC and Southwestern Athletic Conference facing each other starting Dec. 17, 2011, the former South Carolina State head football coach has kept talk about the contest mostly under wraps.

"We are doing due diligence about the possibility and no decision has been made," Thomas said on Monday. "I can't make any comments until or if the deal is done. And then I can make some accurate comments about what is."

Thomas said he was hopeful a final decision on whether to participate in the game, which would require the MEAC to drop its automatic qualifying berth into the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, would take place "sometime in the fall." At that point, the final decision would be left in the hands of the conference's school presidents and chancellors.

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.

Bowl 'surrender' or status quo for MEAC football?

We're into the dog days of the sports calendar, which means that feuding cyclists and the words of football coaches who haven't held a practice yet pass for news. Along those lines, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference honchos are discussing football's future postseason direction. Specifically, the league is considering opting out of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in favor of a bowl game between historically black schools.

Dennis Thomas, the MEAC's genial commissioner and the former athletic director at Hampton University, said that no conclusion has been reached, that the principals are in the midst of due diligence. He said that a decision would come this fall, and if everybody chose the bowl route, the game would take place beginning in 2011. Thomas wouldn't bite on arguments for and against a bowl versus playoff participation, politely repeating that the topic remains in the discussion phase.

Apparently, those discussions are to remain private, since North Carolina A&T athletic director Wheeler Brown said through his executive assistant that Thomas issued a gag order to league ADs about the subject. Brown is about to begin a stint on the FCS playoff selection committee.

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.

Time for SCSU to talk, do the right thing

Athletic director Charlene Johnson is now working under a one-year contract and has been totally silent on the ESPN proposed Legacy Bowl with the Bulldogs supporters and fans.

Fans and boosters of South Carolina State athletics spoke loudly with their financial support of the "Lift-A-Bulldog" program. If only the administration and school leaders were not the total opposite in addressing issues with the athletics department. Since School President George Cooper was told in March to make a decision in regards to athletics director Charlene Johnson's future after June 30, both he and the Board of Trustees went silent on the matter. No word publicly was given as to whether Cooper quietly allowed Johnson's contract to roll over for another year, as is his right according to school by-laws, or if he would request a multi-year deal to the board.

On Wednesday, Board chairman Jonathan Pinson indicated the former had apparently taken place with a one-year contract extension for Johnson. According to Pinson, it was handled as an "internal personnel matter" where Cooper did not have to inform the board of his decision. The secretive manner in which this was handled was disappointing to board member Maurice Washington. What had him especially miffed was the news about a second major issue regarding S.C. State athletics.

As reported by College Sporting News, a tentative agreement...

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.

MEAC representatives to visit Savannah State

NCAA: SSU's three-year probation 'is now over."

Savannah State University's bid to be admitted to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is moving forward following a three-year delay. MEAC commissioner Dennis Thomas told the Savannah Morning News on Tuesday that he and other MEAC representatives will be at SSU June 29-30 for an official site visit - one of the final steps before joining a conference.

SSU has competed as an NCAA Division I Independent since leaving the Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2002. The Tigers paid a $10,000 non-refundable application fee to the MEAC in 2005.

"We will be visiting Savannah State University at the end of June," Thomas said during a telephone interview from MEAC headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va. "That's virtually all I can say about it. We will be visiting. It's a site visit for the membership committee. We won't be in town for more than two days." Thomas and other MEAC representatives made an official site visit to SSU on May 8, 2006. MEAC school presidents were set to vote on the school's admittance, but the NCAA placed SSU's football program on a three-year probation the week before the scheduled decision.

CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.