UPDATE: Delaware State, Howard, SC State To Play On After MEAC Suspends Season

February 23, 2021 by Staff

Originally posted on February 15, this article was updated on February 22 after Howard and South Carolina State finalized their schedules by adding NOTE: home-and-home dates against each other.,

The MEAC suspended play as a conference for the spring football season after three more member teams opted-out and left just 3 of its 9 members onboard.

Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M and North Carolina Central had previously decided not to play.

Norfolk State, North Carolina A&T and Morgan State have all bowed out since February 8 and the MEAC announced its decision on February 11.

The conference said it will allow individual member institutions to decide whether to play and Delaware State, Howard and South Carolina State plan to do just that with a compacted schedule against each other. Delaware State also has its rivalry game with Delaware on the schedule for its original planned date of April 10.

Each institution could qualify for an at-large berth in the NCAA playoff, but the MEAC will not have standing as a conference. The NCAA dictated that a conference must have at least 50% of it's members participating in order to have its champion automatically qualify for the playoff.

The 16-team field will now consist of 10 automatic qualifiers and 6 at-large teams.

Revised Schedules

DELAWARE STATE
2/27 Howard
3/13 at South Carolina State
3/27 at Howard
4/3 – South Carolina State
4/10 – Delaware

HOWARD
2/27 at Delaware State
3/6 South Carolina State
3/27 Delaware State
4/10 at South Carolina State

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
3/6 at Howard
3/13 Delaware State
4/3 at Delaware State
4/10 Howard