
Barely three weeks into the 2018 season and there are only four undefeated teams left in black college football.
At the top of the heap are the Aggies of North Carolina A&T and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) who moved to 3-0 with a 45-6 win over Gardner-Webb Saturday evening.
A&T moved up from fifth to fourth and received three first-place votes nationally in the STATS FCS poll. The Aggies, who are off this week, remained at sixth nationally in the FCS Coaches Poll.
Morehouse of the NCAA Div. II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is at 2-0 after wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the FCS Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), 34-30 two weeks ago, and a 42-20-win Saturday over fellow SIAC member Lane.
The Maroon Tigers will host fellow SIAC member Central State Saturday evening in Atlanta (5 p.m.).
BCSP No. 5 Tennessee State, an HBCU playing in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), is at 1-0 after its game this past Saturday vs. Jackson State in Memphis was cancelled due to inclement weather. TSU owns a dominating 34-3 opening week win over MEAC member and BCSP No. 8 Bethune-Cookman and will travel to Hampton Saturday (6 p.m.) to face former MEAC and now Big South Conference member, Hampton. The Pirates are 1-1 after opening with a 38-10 win over CIAA member Shaw and losing to fellow Big South program Monmouth (56-28) Saturday.
Games scheduled Saturday, including the Hampton vs. Tennessee State match up, may be affected by Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm projected to make landfall Thursday evening on the Carolina coast. The storm is expected to have winds in excess of 115 miles per hour.
As of Tuesday, the Norfolk State game scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at Liberty had been postponed and re-scheduled for Dec. 1. Norfolk State was among the locations under an evacuation order from the Virginia governor. The fourth undefeated HBCU team is 1-0 Langston, an NAIA program playing its first year in the Sooner Athletic Conference. The Lions are travelling to Baton Rouge, La. this Saturday (6 p.m.) to take on the BCSP No. 9 Jaguars of Southern (0-2) out of the SWAC. Southern has been beaten by Louisiana Tech (54-17) and TCU (55-7) to start the season.
New head coach Eric Dooley and BCSP No. 2 Prairie View A&M (1-2), coming off a hard-fought 41-32 loss in Huntsville, Alabama to FCS No. 4 Sam Houston State, are on the road for the fourth straight week, this time in Las Vegas to take on 1-1 UNLV Saturday (7 p.m.). The Runnin‘ Rebels have lost to Southern Cal (43-21) and beaten UTEP (52-24).
Prairie View, with running back Dawonya Tucker averaging an FCS-best 180.6 rushing yards per game with back-to-back games over 200 yards, has had the second most intriguing start to the season behind NC A&T. Dooley is the former offensive coordinator at two-time defending SWAC champion Grambling State.
Dooley’s troops, on a last-second field goal, fell at FBS Rice 31-28 to open the season before running past MEAC contender and then BCSP No. 6 North Carolina Central 40-24 in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta.
Tucker, who ran for 224 yards vs. NCCU, topped that with a career-best 245 yards Saturday against Sam Houston State as the Panthers battled the Bearkats to the final minutes. Tucker averages 10.2 yards per carry, with 19 runs of 10 or more yards.
The impressive start for the Panthers may have moved them past champion Grambling as favorites in the SWAC.
After two tough losses on the road against FBS opponents, BCSP No. 3 Howard comes home to Washington, D. C. to take on MEAC member Savannah State Saturday (1 p.m.). Savannah State, located on the Georgia coast, may also have its travel plans affected by Florence.
No. 4 Grambling has a bye week.
BCSP No. 6 Alcorn State (1-1) has its first in-conference SWAC game Saturday (6 p.m.) when it hosts 1-1 Texas Southern. In another game that could affected by the storm, BCSP No. 7 North Carolina Central (1-1) has its first game vs. MEAC competition when it travels (6 p.m.) to South Carolina State (0-2).
No. 8 Bethune-Cookman (1-1) is in Boca Raton, Florida at 1-1 FBS program Florida Atlantic (6 p.m.) and No. 10, CIAA favorite Bowie State (1-1), is on the road (1 p.m.) for the third straight week at McKendree (2-0).
In other cross-conference games, CIAA South favorite Fayetteville State (1-1) is hosting SIAC East contender Benedict (1-1) at 4 p.m. Florida A&M (1-1) out of the MEAC is hosting (5 p.m.) SWAC member Jackson State (0-1).
The CIAA has four South vs. North match ups with Virginia Union at J. C. Smith (4 p.m.), Virginia State at St. Augustine’s (1 p.m.), Chowan at Shaw (1 p.m.) and Elizabeth City State and Winston-Salem State meeting at 4 p.m. in Rocky Mount, NC.
Besides the Morehouse vs. Central State game, the SIAC has two other East vs. West tilts as Fort Valley State is at Miles (3 p.m.) and Clark Atlanta hosts Tuskegee (6 p.m.).