From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
Established: 1970
NCAA	Division I FCS
Members	12
Sports fielded	15 (men's: 7; women's: 8)
Region	East Coast
Headquarters	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Commissioner	Dennis E. Thomas (since 2002)
Website	www.meacsports.com
Locations

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I, and in football, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Currently, the MEAC has automatic qualifying bids for NCAA postseason play in baseball (since 1994), men’s basketball (since 1981), women’s basketball (since 1982), football (since 1996), softball (since 1995), men and women’s tennis (since 1998), and volleyball (since 1994). Bowling was officially sanctioned as a MEAC governed sport in 1999. Before that season, the MEAC was the first conference to secure NCAA sanctioning for women’s bowling by adopting the club sport prior to the 1996-97 school year.

History

Locations of current Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference full member institutions.

In 1969, a group, whose members were long associated with interscholastic athletics, met in Durham, NC with the purpose of discussing the organization of a new conference. After the formulation of a committee, and their research reported, seven institutions: Delaware State University, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Central University and South Carolina State College agreed to become the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.^[1] The conference's main goals were to establish and supervise an intercollegiate athletic program among a group of educational institutions that shared the same academic standards and philosophy of co-curricular activities and seek status as a Division I conference for all of its sports.

The conference was confirmed in 1970, and had its first season of competition in football in 1971. The MEAC has had to date, three full-time commissioners. ^[1] In 1978, the MEAC selected its first full-time commissioner, Kenneth A. Free, who served as Commissioner until he resigned in 1995. He was succeeded by Charles S Harris, who served at the position until 2002. On September 1, 2002, Dennis E. Thomas became the conference’s commissioner.

The MEAC experienced its first expansion in 1979 when Bethune-Cookman College (Now Bethune-Cookman University) and Florida A&M University were admitted as new members. That same year, founding members Morgan State University, North Carolina Central University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore withdrew from the conference. All schools, with the exception of North Carolina Central returned to the conference with Maryland Eastern Shore in 1981 and Morgan State in 1984.

On June 8, 1980, the MEAC was classified as a Division I conference by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Prior to that year, the league operated as a Division II conference. The following month the MEAC received an automatic qualification to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

In 1984, membership in the MEAC again changed as Florida A&M chose to leave. The university would return to the conference two years later. Coppin State College, now Coppin State University, joined the conference in 1985. The MEAC would find stability with its membership until the addition of Virginia universities; Hampton and Norfolk State in 1995 and 1997 respectively. For the next 10 years, the MEAC would remain an 11 member conference. In 2007, former CIAA member Winston-Salem State University was granted membership, but announced on September 11, 2009 that it would return to Division II at the end of 2009-2010 and apply to return to the CIAA. ^[2]

Membership

Current members

Membership in the MEAC has fluctuated through the years, but now stands at twelve schools, including six of the founding members. ^[3]

Future members

Division I Independent Schools,North Carolina Central University and Savannah State University were announced as the newest members of the MEAC on September 10, 2009 and March 10, 2010 respectively. North Carolina Central University will re-join the conference effective July 1, 2010, while Savannah State University will will be granted full membership status once they have satisified certain scholarship, staffing, and budget requirements mandated by the MEAC.^[4][5] NCCU was one of seven founding member institutions of the MEAC, but withdrew from the conference in 1979, opting to remain a Division II member when the conference reclassified to Division I.^[4] Savannah State originally applied for membership into the MEAC in 2006 but faced an NCAA probationary period soon after. Membership was then deferred until the completion of the imposed probation period, which ended in May of 2009. Savannah State then resubmitted their application for membership again in 2009. ^[5]

Membership timeline

Invalid image map generated by EasyTimeline

Conference facilities

Sports

Member universities compete in the following sports:

Championships

Current Champions

Football

Men's basketball

On June 8, 1980, the MEAC earned the classification as a Division I conference by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 1981, the MEAC has received an qualifying bid to for NCAA post season play in the sport of basketball. In two cases, MEAC schools seeded 15th (Coppin State in 1997, Hampton in 2001) defeated second-seeded teams in the NCAA tournament.

Tournaments Performance by school

Women's basketball

Softball

Bethune-Cookman won the Florida Regional in 2005, the first NCAA Regional Final ever won by a MEAC school, and ended that season ranked #18 in a national poll.^[7]

Baseball

See also

• MEAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
• 2009 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football standings
• 2008 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football standings
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament Finals broadcasters
• MEAC Football Venues
• MEAC Basketball Venues

References

External links

• www.meacsports.com - Official web site