Welcome to The Signal, Box Score’s Wednesday newsletter. This week, we’re looking at the lopsided relationship between HBCU football programs and their Power 4 counterparts, and how HBCUs can make losing pay and help their storied teams thrive.
In Miami’s 77-7 victory over Florida A&M on Sept. 10, the Hurricanes set a school record with 856 yards and 11 touchdowns on 12 possessions. Florida A&M’s only score came on a 72-yard fumble return late in the fourth quarter. The only time FAMU had been beaten worse in a 120-year history that has included 16 Black College National Championships and the 1978 FCS national champion was a 76-0 loss to Ohio State in 2013.
“We are largely under a situation where the level of play isn’t where it needs to be, simply because of our inability to attract upper-level players from a monetary standpoint,” said Florida A&M Coach Quinn Gray after the game. “Until we’re able to benefit from some of those finances going directly into our ecosystem, those will be the results that will end up coming out of that in terms of scores, as you saw over the weekend.”
What’s the price of a beating to the teams that lose these lopsided games?
After the game, Florida A&M left Miami with a $720,000 check. That check was the biggest that any historically Black college collected this season for playing a Power 4 school. It is about 6% of what FAMU spends to run its entire athletic department, according to Gray, and about 3.3% of what Miami is allowed to pay its own athletes this year.
FAMU wasn’t the only HBCU team to take a beating from a Power 4 team this season. Eleven HBCUs played Power 4 schools this fall and lost all 11 games, by a combined score of 682-57.
The eight games with reported guarantees paid $4.35 million in total, about one-fifth of the $21.6 million each Power 4 school can now spend on its players under the House v. NCAA settlement.
Is it worth it?
There are plenty of reasons for HBCUs not to play these bigger, faster and more skilled Power 4 teams. A March 2026 study published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise highlighted that over 50% of surveyed HBCU student-athletes screened at risk for depression or anxiety, compounded by the heavy stress of underfunded athletic programs. Critics argue that forcing athletes into games where they are essentially set up to lose “for a check” exacerbates these mental health struggles.
