Hayes may hold keys to Classic's continuance

LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor

Editors Note: After this article was written, NC A&T indicated that it would not renew the contract with the Capital Area Sports Foundation, essentially killing the Aggie-Eagle Classic in its current form.

The school's are in the final year of their contract for the game and promoters are looking to renew it for another five years. That's not a sure thing for NCAA Div. I-AA and Mid Eastern Athletic Conference-member A&T, who appreciates the heated matchup but has a different view of the game than the Div. II and CIAA-member Eagles.

"For them, being at that level (Div. II), it's their Super Bowl game," said A&T head coach George Small in a postgame interview after the Aggies missed a 43-yard field goal with eight seconds left to come up on the short end of a 23-22 score at this year's contest. "This is one of the biggest games of the season that they're gonna play. Naturally they're going to be emotional. Intensity is gong to be high. The game means a lot. It's tough to lose."

But the intensity is not just on the NCCU side of the field.

The matchup has been one-sided ­A&T-sided, you might say ­ with the Aggies winning ten of 12 since the game moved to NC State's Carter-Finley Stadium and became the Classic in 1994. A&T holds a 45-28-5 edge in the series that is the oldest for each school and more fierce than either school has in their present conferences.

For the last two years the games have had everything you'd want to see in a backyard rivalry ­ intensity, drama and thrilling, last-minute finishes. Last year, A&T converted a 50-yard field goal with no time left on the clock to pull out a miracle 16-15 win. This year the teams had five unsportsmanlike penalties in the first quarter alone and the outcome saw the NC Central team erupt in an on-field celebration that came dangerously close to becoming a brawl. The two schools staged a much-publicized fight involving players and fans during a basketball game at A&T back in 1990 that garnered a lot of national attention, most of it negative, and added more spice to the rivalry.

"I think the team that won last year (A&T) ran across the field," said NC Central head coach Rod Broadway after the victory. "It is an emotional game. I don't know anything about any fighting or any of that stuff. It was just a big win for the Eagles and we're glad to have it."

For her part, new A&T Athletics Director Delores "Dee" Todd is non-committal about the future of the game. She says she has a lot of factors to look at including a Div. II team's impact on the Aggies' strength of schedule index, financials associated with accommodating an outside promoter and the fact that there's a real possibility the teams will have to play on Mondays for years to come. She said a decision should be made by the end of the month.

Standing somewhere in the middle of the future of the rivalry is a man with ties to both schools, Todd's counterpart at NCCU, Bill Hayes.

Hayes, a NCCU alum and former all-CIAA center during his playing days with the Eagles, coached the Aggies to great heights during a 15-year stay as head coach that ended unceremoniously in 2002 when he was fired. He re-emerged as the athletic director at his alma mater six months later and has lent his expertise to coach Broadway's turnaround of the Eagles' gridiron program. Hayes received the game ball from the Eagles after this year's Classic win and ironically, the ball may be in his court as it relates to its future.

Hayes will present the athletic department's plans to move NCCU out of the CIAA and Div. II classification into Div. I to the institution's Board of Trustees' Student Relations Committee at the end of this month

"We've done a two-year study that completes this week," said Hayes. "They (the board) may vote at the end of this month or they may wait until November, but sometime this semester we're gonna know how they feel about the results of the study." Included in the study are the particulars of a move to Div. I, I-AA in football, and outlooks on joining conferences like the MEAC where the Aggies now reside. Such a move would insure the future of the rivalry.

Hayes said he spoke to two or three conferences for the study but said as a reminder, "we're one of the original members of the MEAC," the conference he obviously feels is a natural fit for the Eagles. Even if the board accepts the study and decides to make the move to Div. I and join the MEAC, the process could take at least five years. What happens to the Classic in the interim? "I'm sure they wouldn't want to see it end like this," said Hayes slyly after the win. "I think they'll want to play football. Don't you?"

© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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