MEAC Basketball: 3 candidates to replace the departing North Carolina A&T

Virginia Union University – Richmond, Virginia

In terms of championship receipts and pedigree, there isn’t a more storied HBCU program at ANY level of basketball than the Panthers. Besides being the alma maters of Ben Wallace, AJ English, and Charles Oakley, Virginia Union has got a National Championship legacy at the Division II level of NCAA basketball. The Panthers have won the DII National Title 3 times (1980, 1992, 2005), and made the DII Final Four seven times under legendary head coach Dave Robbins.

They’ve been the modern championship standard-bearer for HBCU basketball, and they’ve helped make the CIAA the most successful HBCU basketball conference at ANY level of NCAA basketball. If they were to eventually make the jump to the MEAC, it would be a home run addition to the conference for basketball. The program’s championship resume could become a real recruiting tool in the right hands.

The school is also located in some pretty fertile recruiting territory, being able to draw from the talent-laden DC/Metro-Baltimore corridor, as well as the Tidewater region of Virginia. Barco-Stevens Hall, even with current renovations, would be one of the smaller venues in the conference. That being said, the jump to Division I would be a boon to an already passionate fanbase. Being in the same conference as traditional CIAA and ‘Gold Bowl’ rival Norfolk State would bring another potential intense intraconference home-in-home to the MEAC. Of the three potential candidate schools being examined, the addition of Virginia Union would be a no-brainer for the MEAC overall.