“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” – Al Pacino, aka Michael Corleone, “The Godfather, Part III.”

I’m not in the mob and certainly haven’t killed anybody (that you can find), but I feel some of what Corleone meant on a different level.

It’s June. Summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, on Father’s Day. The 2025-26 HBCU sports season officially ended last month.

It’s ME time. Yes, there’s still a newspaper to publish because the news doesn’t stop, but HBCU sports used to. There was such a thing as an offseason. We could get away from it all and get our life back, if only for a little while.

I figured I had at least until the July Fourth weekend before things heated up.

Then an email came from the MEAC announcing the details of its Football Media Day next month. The CIAA, SIAC and SWAC sent out their releases weeks ago, too early to get serious about sports.

But the MEAC is the dinner bell.

The conference even changed its menu with a new meal called “The Pivot.” This national sports podcast is hosted by former NFL stars Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor, so expect a whole new listening audience.

The media day returns to M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, for the second straight year. The event was moved from its normal hotel venue in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, to accommodate the frenzy surrounding the hirings of ex-NFL superstars Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson.

It's Year 2, but the euphoria hasn’t diminished, at least on Jackson’s side after Delaware State came within one win of going to the Cricket Celebration Bowl.

"MEAC Football Media Day provides an opportunity to celebrate the student-athletes, coaches, and institutions that continue to shape the game of football while preparing young people for success in life,” said Troy Vincent Sr., executive vice president of NFL Football Operations. “As we look ahead to another season, we celebrate the power of football to bring people together, create opportunity and inspire the next generation."
Yeah, T-H-A-T Troy Vincent, the NFL All-Pro cornerback that I watched every Sunday.

MEAC football should be on “Cloud Nine,” as The Temptations sang back in the day. The conference opened the season with a win against its rival SWAC (and it is a rivalry) in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge and ended the season on the same high note after South Carolina State defeated Prairie View A&M in overtime in the Celebration Bowl.

Add that to this season’s storylines.

Can anybody stop the Chennis Berry machine?

Was Delaware State’s success a fluke under Jackson?

How quickly will fans turn on Vick if Norfolk State goes 1-11 again?

Will Howard alumnus Ted White’s inaugural season go the route of Jackson, Vick or somewhere in between?

Will Morgan State coach Damon Wilson finally get that breakthrough and turn the Bears into winners like he did at Bowie State?

And what will North Carolina Central’s offense look like without 2025 MEAC Offensive Player of the Year Walker Harris, who followed in the footsteps of 2022 and 2023 MEAC Offensive Player of the Year Davius Richard?

Yep, for a short while I was out on a mental vacation, but they got me. I’ve been pulled back in. Giddy Up!

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