A conference with one obvious answer
South Carolina State have not lost a MEAC football game since 2023. Eleven league wins in a row, at an average margin of 22.9 points, and two conference titles stacked on top of a Celebration Bowl and an HBCU national crown last season.
The Bulldogs also took 10 of the 25 first-team places on the MEAC preseason team, and 14 of 51 once the second team is counted. Opta’s projection model has them at 7.2 wins from 12 games and ranks them 52nd in the FCS on preseason TRACR, comfortably first in a six-team conference. Stats Perform’s preseason poll puts them 24th in the country.
Chennis Berry is 10-0 in MEAC games as a head coach and has now put together four straight perfect conference seasons, two of them at Benedict. Linebacker Jordan Franklin was named the conference’s preseason defensive player of the year. Edge rusher Ka’Von Chisolm piled up 17 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss across the final six games of last season.
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Who can get near them
North Carolina Central sit second in the projections at 6.0 wins. Josh Jones takes over at quarterback after three years of waiting and throws to Chance Peterson, the MEAC preseason offensive player of the year, who caught 48 passes for 720 yards last season. The Eagles travel to Orangeburg on 14 November, the date that will settle the title.
Delaware State come next. DeSean Jackson’s first season produced a seven-win improvement, the biggest jump in the FCS, built on a rushing attack that averaged 290 yards per game and led the division. That ground game has been rebuilt this summer and the quarterback job is open. Opta projects 5.0 wins.
Morgan State land at 5.4 projected wins and Howard at 5.2, both ahead of Delaware State on that measure despite finishing below them last season. Norfolk State bring up the rear at 3.0 after going 1-11 in Mike Vick’s first year, though six of those defeats came by six points or fewer. The Spartans also drew 132 penalties, the most in an FCS season this decade.
The last team to do it
Three straight outright conference titles is rarer than the Bulldogs’ current run suggests. Hampton were the last MEAC program to manage it, between 2004 and 2006, and Hampton have since left the conference altogether. South Carolina State play both of last season’s other winning teams at home this year.
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