It's not surprising that a non-EA football game is generating a bit of intrigue and hype prior to release, but what’s unusual about Black College Football Xperience is that it has garnered some attention for the wrong reasons. Some people are not interested in what the game has to offer on the field, but instead are interested in the title of the game.

In two weeks, Operation Sports will be reviewing Nerjyzed Entertainment's Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition for the Xbox 360. Rather than ignore this issue and let it cloud over our review, Operation Sports is here to tackle the issue head-on in this article, so that the review can be solely devoted to what’s coded into the game disc -- instead of what’s written on the game's box.

What’s in a Name?

The title, Black College Football Xperience, has been called many things:

• A blatant marketing ploy designed to stir up controversy
• Emblematic of a "double-standard" that allows for the production of explicitly "black" entertainment as opposed to those that are explicitly "white"
• Just plain "racist"

In truth, it is none of those things. The title is simply misinterpreted and misunderstood.

While the average person reading the title seems to gravitate towards the word "Black," with an emphasis on the players' race, the focus of the title should actually be "Black College," meaning the 34 historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) that are represented in the game, all of which admit students of any race, not just those who are black.

Essentially, Black College Football Xperience is a game dedicated, not to a single race, but to the HBCUs and their proud football traditions, which include members of all races.

Ignorance has always been at the heart of racism, and the controversy behind BCFX is no different.
Source: aladdinsarcade.com

HBCU 101

For those who don’t know, HBCUs are institutions that were -- for the most part -- founded after the Civil War. They gave newly freed African Americans a chance to pursue the college educations that were being denied to them by "regular" colleges and universities -- many of which remained segregated long after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

In fact, it took almost 100 years, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, before the racial segregation of schools was finally outlawed in America.

During those hundred years and all the way up to the present, schools like Morehouse College, Howard University, Hampton University and so on have established themselves, not just as fine academic institutions, but also as schools with proud athletic traditions.

Central to those traditions are the schools' marching bands and their drumlines, which give black college football games a party-like atmosphere distinct from other collegiate sporting events.

It’s the unique traditions and atmosphere that Black College Football Xperience is trying to capture, as it’s something that EA’s NCAA Football series has not tried very hard to imitate, even when historically black football conferences were a part of EA's game.

Live-band recordings and an interactive halftime show bring the party atmosphere to life in BCFX.
Source: BCFXgame.com

EA’s Loss Is Nerjyzed's Gain

Since moving the franchise onto next-gen consoles, the NCAA Football series has omitted all FCS teams (Division I-AA) from its roster.

Among those casualties were historically black conferences like the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) and SWAC (Southwestern Athletic Conference). Those two conferences account for a total of 20 HBCUs.

As with the other FCS teams, the absence of HBCU powerhouses like Grambling State, Southern, Florida A&M, and so on has surely been noticed by a significant group of NCAA Football gamers.

But with the July release of Black College Football Xperience, those two FCS conferences, as well as Division II leagues like the SIAC (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and CIAA (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association) now have a virtual home in a current-gen video game.

And while all of these historically black conferences compete yearly for the black college football national championship (as voted on in the SBN black college football poll), this will be the first time that fans of those schools can fight for the BCF national championship in a videogame format.

A History Worth Celebrating

As readers may have picked up on by now, the phrase "black college" is simply a colloquial term used as a shorthand method of referring to historically black colleges and universities.

No one has ever taken offense to the use of the term "black college" as it relates to the HBCU polls or the dozens of yearly classics that many HBCUs schedule instead of participating in their leagues' national playoffs. So why would the use of the term "Black College" in a videogame cause such a huge reaction?

Apparently the reason for the misjudgment is that gamers are simply unfamiliar with black colleges in general, not to mention the history behind them. It is Operation Sports' hope that, after reading this article, ignorance is no longer an excuse.

Of the 105 black colleges and universities that exist today, many of them have been around for well over a century, so surely we can all agree that it’s time for these schools to get their due in a videogame. It's time to celebrate everything that makes HBCUs stand out from other colleges and universities.

So make sure to keep an eye out for Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition, scheduled to arrive on the Xbox 360 on July 20.

And check back here shortly after release for the official Operation Sports review.