The only Black woman in the NAIA is committed to and leading the rebranding of the HBCU Athletic Conference

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) organizes 21 conferences. Only one is led by a black commissioner.

This league will probably be in force from July 1 latest name which encompasses its mission and membership: the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) with the motto “Where Winners Thrive.”

After three years of interim service, Kiki Baker Barnes was named everlasting commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) in June 2022. She said her leadership team worked with Black-owned marketing firm Ten35 for 2 years before selecting the latest name.

“We had been operating as an HBCU conference and collective since 2010, but we had no ownership,” Barnes told the Grio Journal. “We wanted to think of a name that would be more fitting. I’m very excited to leverage our identity and continue to grow the conference. We have a strategic plan to reach 16 members.”

GCAC was founded in 1981 with three HBCUs – Dillard, Tougaloo and Xavier-Louisiana – and 4 predominantly white institutions situated in three Gulf Coast states. Starting this summer, Conference will include 13 schools – all HBCUs – situated in eight states and one U.S. territory.

Barnes said too many individuals who couldn’t name a single GCAC member actually knew these schools quite well, including deep-rooted HBCUs like Fisk and Talladega. On the other hand, HBCUs in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conferences were easy to discover.

“When you say ‘SWAC,’” Barnes said, referring to the Southwestern Athletic Conference, “Grambling, Southern and Alabama State are pulling out. She noted the same dynamic amongst members of the Mideastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

“But when you said, ‘Gulf Coast Athletic Conference,’ people went, ‘Hmm?’ Nobody knew who it was. But I would name the schools and people would know them. The only differentiator among us is that we are all HBCUs.”

In 2010, the conference was on the verge of collapse when six schools left, leaving 4 HBCUs as the only members. Barnes, who had spent nearly 16 years at Dillard as women’s basketball coach and athletic director, became president of the conference – “I took over a sinking ship” – and immediately helped recruit latest members resembling Philander Smith, Edward Waters and Voorhees.

She said that, as expected, the response to the rebranding was mixed. HBCUAC is the youngest HBCU conference. Some of the old guard are usually not thrilled with the latest name, perhaps considering it a bit conceited. But critics are removed from her mind and audience.

“I would say people who have money were very excited,” said Barnes, a fierce competitor who played basketball in New Orleans and holds the school record in the triple jump. “It makes me excited about the potential brand partnerships that may take place. I received good feedback from coaches and people who followed our conference and were familiar with what we were doing. They are very excited.”

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The rebranding will take effect on the same day that Stillman, Voorhees and Wilberforce develop into official members. As of 2022, five other schools have joined or rejoined, including the University of the Virgin Islands, which became first school from U.S. territory to join an NAIA or NCAA conference in the twenty first century.

Stillman athletic director Terrance White he said WBRC-TV that its athletes will enjoy enhanced cultural experiences in their latest league.

“Schools of similar size, with missions, visions and values ​​of similar size,” White said. “You know, similar sports programs, similar students come from similar backgrounds. All of this turns out to be something that cannot be measured in the long run.”

NAIA sports programming is much smaller than its top NCAA counterparts, which collectively generate billions in television revenue. But regardless of size, each school’s mission goes beyond athletics. Sports help fulfill this mission, even in conferences like the GCAC that don’t field football teams.

“We don’t expect to make millions like the big schools,” Wilberforce President Vann Newkirk said he said Gazeta Codzienna Xenia. However, we all know that at our level every penny counts, and running a sports program is a business. This move will energize our alumni base, which in turn will help us increase attendance and overall interest in the University.”

Sports can enhance a faculty’s profile and brand, creating more ways to share information and increase enrollment. Barnes said HBCUAC will do that and more for its member institutions.

“When we talk about ‘Where Winners Thrive,’ do you know what stories we can tell? There is a lot of history, not just athletics,” she said.

“It gives us a platform where we can really grow and tell the stories of our institutions so that they have the same brand recognition as Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, FAMU, Grambling, Tuskegee and all these schools that people know.”