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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.”
Entertainment
“Big Ol” Women in San Antonio makes a laugh when Charles Barkley boomed for doubles on many years of beef
The general legend of the NBA, Charles Barkley, moved the pot again together with his ten -year -old feud from San Antonio, refusing to withdraw from his well -known comments concerning the city of town during his appearance on the March Madness Festival.
The 62-year-old Hall of Famer went out on the stage on Sunday, April 6, just a day after his Alma Mater, Auburn, lost his final 4 duel with Florida-who won the national championship with the victory of 65-63 over Houston on Monday evening-I didn’t waste time, which didn’t win his relationship with Texas.
Despite the mixed reception of Boos and laughter from the gang, Barkley remained unmoved when he continued a joke, which at the identical time entertained and offended the inhabitants of San Antonio for almost 20 years.
The basketball legend softened the initial negative response, praising San Antonio as a “great city” and expressing admiration for coach Spurs Gregg Popovich and the band, then immediately began his controversial remarks.
“Yes, you got some B – Ches,” said Barkle, adding one other chapter to what became one of essentially the most durable losers in the sports media.
Reaction to Tiktok was divided as a live audience.
Charles Barkley on the stage in San Antonioband
“San Antonio … .. yes, you have some big ole itching” pic.twitter.com/nsjebbcfx
– Charlie Reynolds (@crecynolds1563) April 7, 2025
Many residents appeared to be joking with Stride, and one commentator Tiktok writes: “You can call him all except a liar.”
Another compatriot from San Antonio agreed, commenting: “He is not wrong and I am a native. There are several huge b -ches here.”
Others admired his sticking, and one person noticed: “double?
However, not everyone found humor in Barkley’s multiple stabs.
Some commentators pushed themselves against sexist tons, and one person wrote: “They are such a stupid misogytic word” before they criticized those that laughed, adding: “half of their mothers look like those girls they talk about.”
Feud reaches almost 20 years, when Barkley first commented on “Big Ol” Women in San Antonio “, discussing Spurs in” Inside the NBA “.
Since then, he still refers back to the joke, comparing the “Lean Houston Women” with “Women-Ass women in San Antonio” in 2019, and in 2021 noting that ladies from San Antonio couldn’t fit in the door, According to to BROBBible.com.
His jokes went beyond personal performances when he once claimed that he would open a truck with food suggesting Women from San Antonio would buy all their food.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0GSBQNX0Ag
In March 2023, he even called the favored river in town “dirty, small stream.” Reported.
The response has been significant over the years.
Tim Duncan’s girlfriend famously answered the wearing of the shirt “Barkley don’t know”, a trend that attracted many local women.
Waste intensified in 2015, when Abby Lentz published A 4 -page article through a coalition of obesity condemning Barkley’s discriminatory comments.
In an article entitled “Basketball, Barkley and Fat Bashing” she said: “I felt like I came back to Junior High again.”
Until 2021, the pressure presses to such an extent that Warner Bros. Apparently, he asked Barkley to stop making these jokes in “Inside the Nba”. Barkley blamed “Cancel Culture” for the ban, telling journalists: “Nowadays you can’t even play without these Jackass, trying to cancel you and the like.”
He defended himself, saying: “I did not call anyone personally fat in San Antonio, I just joked.”
When the middle of Auburn Dylan Cardwell got here to San Antonio for the last 4, he jokingly commented that “he did not see any of the women he was talking about Charles Barkley.”
After arriving in San Antonio, coach Auburn Bruce Pearl told the players to depart the river and experience San Antonio and “enjoy what they made”
Auburn Center Dylan Cardwell quickly accepted Alamo City
pic.twitter.com/V9pegwnxxa
– Zack Hedrick (@zhedricktv) April 3, 2025
Despite the criticism, he known as for cancellation and formal requests to stop, Barkley’s return to San Antonio concerning the last 4 shows his reluctance to desert what has turn out to be his signature.
April 8 NBA on TNT common The Barkley clip participating in the “Pop The Balloon” viral dating game, in which singles attempt to catch a date with one completely happy competitor. However, in the event that they don’t like what they see or hear, they may sleep a balloon to justify the sport. Because Barkley participated in the sport in San Antonio, there isn’t a doubt that he is not going to be lucky with women.
Women had many explanation why they rejected the prospect to fall in love with Barkley, including the indisputable fact that he likes the “wolf” Churros and that he lacks muscles. “You don’t even have any rings,” one of the participants joked.
As one of the commentators aptly noted, at this point it seems that you would be able to’t stop Barkley.
The more the redemption he receives from women from San Antonio, the more determined it seems to consolidate his controversial joke – the testimony of his unanimous approach to the comedy, which still divides recipients in the style of humor and sensitivity in the era of an increasing number of defined by the standards of acceptable public discourse.
(Tagstotransate) Charles Barkley
Entertainment
Reebok continues to return to basketball with the signing of Dijonai Carrington – and Scape
Dijonai Carrington is the latest WNBA player who joined the Reebok basketball list.
The Dallas Wings guard has signed a protracted -term contract with the company based in Boston, which is able to establish it as a brand ambassador in the field of performance and lifestyle clothing, starting with the basketball sneakers engine.
The signing of Carrington is an element of a protracted -term effort for Reebok to restore to the basketball brand. The A engine, which Carrington wore during the inaugural inaugural season, is their first recent basketball sneakers from ZPump Rise.
“I am excited about continuing the family heritage and joining the Reebok basketball list,” said Carrington. Her father, former safety of NFL, Darren Carrington, also supported Reebok during his profession. “Reebok basketball has officially returned and I can’t wait to introduce energy outside in the new A. engine”
Carrington was appointed the most improved WNBA player in 2024, and also won the first ALL Defense Honors team. A profession from San Diego, on average, almost 13 points, 5 rebounds and a shadow below 2 thefts per match. Recently, it was exchanged with the Connecticut Sun to Wings under a 4 -person contract.
Carrington joins REEBOK WNBA basketball, including Angel Reese and Lexie Brown.
Entertainment
When hip -hop and classical collide: us to perform “Illmatic” live with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra – Essence
In what seems to be a cult combination of hip-hop and classical music, we can be joined by forces with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra because of this of its groundbreaking debut album. A breakthrough event takes place on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at 19:30 in Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The entitled concert guarantees to recuperate one of the famous albums of all time with sweeping orchestral arrangements carried out by Steven Reineke. The evening will happen iconic songs, akin to “Ny State of Mind”, “The World is Yours”, “Memory Lane (Sittin ‘in da Park)” and “It is not difficult to find”, each interpreted by wealthy textures of full symphony.
“Welcoming us with BSO will be an attraction of the year,” said Mark Hanson, president and general director of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. “This cooperation speaks to our involvement in breaking borders and creating a space in which all recipients feel associated with the power of orchestral music. It is an honor to revive this iconic album in a new way and shed light on the amazing scope and talent of our musicians.”
Celebrating thirtieth anniversary From the primary studio effort, this performance is a cultural milestone that mixes raw lyricism with great classical instrumentation-impressing the impression once in life for fans of each species.
Since the discharge in 1994, he built a long-lasting heritage from Queensbridge, winning 16 Grammy nominations and winning one of the best rap album in 2020. Its influence includes a long time, and its recent revival keeps him on the forefront of the species.
TicketsPrice between USD 75 and USD 299They are already available by BSO website or on Meyerhoff Box Office. Do not miss this historical celebration of music, poetry and a timeless story.
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