There are 21 conferences in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Only one is led by a Black woman commissioner.
Effective July 1, that league will have a new name that embraces its mission and membership: the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC), with the tagline, “Where Winners Thrive.”
After serving for three years in an interim capacity, Kiki Baker Barnes was installed as permanent commissioner of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) in June 2022. She said her leadership team worked with Black-owned marketing firm Ten35 for two years before choosing the new name.
“We had operated as a conference and a collective of HBCUs since 2010, but there was no ownership,” Barnes told theGrio. “We wanted to think about a name that might be more fitting. I’m really excited about leaning into our identity and continuing to grow the conference. We have a strategic plan to get to 16 members.”
The GCAC was founded in 1981 with three HBCUs – Dillard, Tougaloo and Xavier-Louisiana – and four primarily white institutions located in three Gulf Coast states. Starting this summer, the conference will expand to 13 schools – all HBCUs – located in eight states and one U.S. territory.
Barnes said too many people who couldn’t name a single GCAC member were actually quite familiar with the schools, including deep-rooted HBCUs like Fisk and Talladega. Conversely, HBCUs in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conferences were easily identifiable.
“When you say ‘SWAC,’” Barnes said in reference to the Southwestern Athletic Conference, “Grambling, Southern and Alabama State roll off. She pointed out the same dynamic for members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
“But when you said, ‘Gulf Coast Athletic Conference,’ people were like, ‘Hmm?’ Nobody knew who…
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