Hampton U. blasts ‘vindictive’ MEAC ahead of exit from conference

Hampton University accused the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tuesday of "vindictive sanctions" and "unreasonable demands" ahead of the university's exit from the conference.

Hampton said in a strongly worded news release that the MEAC has refused to discuss the school's transition to the Big South. The conference has fined Hampton $250,000 for missing the July 1, 2017, deadline to give notice it would be withdrawing and will not allow Hampton to play a MEAC football schedule in 2018, as it had requested, leaving the school to scramble.

"I am appalled that, after a 22-year rewarding and productive relationship and numerous conference championships the MEAC wants to hang Hampton University student-athletes out to dry," Hampton senior vice president Paul C. Harris said in the release.

Hampton, a self-described "standard of excellence" among historically black colleges and universities, is moving to the bigger and wealthier Big South in an effort to "unite (Hampton's) athletics with its celebrated upward trajectory in academics," the school said.

The Pirates basketball team appeared most recently in the NCAA Tournament as the MEAC's representative in 2015 and '16. As a 15th seed in 2001, Hampton upended second-seeded Iowa State.