Conference realignment is still alive and well in college football.
As first reported by the Greensboro News & Record, North Carolina A&T is set to vote on Friday to leave the MEAC in order to join fellow FCS league the Big South.
Should it be approved by the university’s board, the move will take place following the upcoming 2020 season.
The Aggies have been one of the conference’s most successful football programs since the league full of historically black colleges/universities was founded in 1970. The program has won seven HBCU national titles, including four of the last five by virtue of winning the annual Celebration Bowl against the SWAC champion.
It’s not specifically known what’s driving the move on A&T’s part but it does carry significant football implications. Obviously the MEAC is losing one of their best programs and that itself comes on the heels of losing several other schools to realignment in recent seasons too. But perhaps most important to the Aggies is that the Big South has an automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs so they could have an easier path to the postseason and a potential national title at the lower Division I level that way.
NC A&T was the only HBCU to earn an FCS playoff bid in the last five seasons but it’s a rare accomplishment coming out of the MEAC.
While many have speculated about forthcoming conference realignment at the FBS level for many years now, it appears things are still rolling right along on that front in the other half of the division based on this latest move.