The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Affiliation (CIAA), one of many oldest HBCU athletic conferences within the nation, has introduced that it’s bringing its baseball championship again to the league after a seven-year absence. The return of the CIAA Baseball Championship marks a big second for HBCU sports activities, restoring a legacy that stretches again greater than a century.
The CIAA final sponsored baseball in 2017, when Winston-Salem State College captured the convention title for the fifth time in seven years. That championship closed a chapter on what had as soon as been a vibrant and aggressive sport throughout HBCU campuses within the CIAA. Over time, nevertheless, a number of member establishments dropped their baseball applications resulting from budgetary and operational challenges, leaving the league and not using a sustainable variety of groups for an automated bid within the NCAA Division II event.
4 faculties at present within the CIAA have baseball: Virginia State College, Claflin College, Lincoln College and Bluefield State College. Different CIAA establishments—resembling Bowie State, Johnson C. Smith, Livingstone, Shaw, and Winston-Salem State—had all discontinued their baseball applications. Claflin is at present within the Peach Belt Convention and Lincoln is at present within the East Coast Convention.
Regardless of these setbacks, the CIAA’s spring 2025 conferences introduced excellent news for baseball followers and HBCU supporters. The league introduced plans to reinstate its baseball championship, signaling a renewed dedication to providing extra athletic alternatives and preserving the wealthy custom of HBCU baseball.
That custom features a lengthy record of previous champions, with early dominance by Virginia State (then often known as Virginia Regular and Industrial Institute), and later by Norfolk State, which gained a outstanding 14 consecutive CIAA titles between 1980 and 1993. Different HBCUs resembling Shaw, Saint Augustine’s, and Winston-Salem State additionally performed key roles in shaping CIAA baseball historical past.
Reintroducing baseball gives an opportunity for HBCU athletes to shine on the diamond as soon as once more and provides faculties a chance to rebuild or reintroduce applications that join them to their athletic previous. It additionally displays the CIAA’s broader effort to strengthen its sports activities portfolio and improve student-athlete experiences.
The return of CIAA baseball not solely restores a championship occasion but additionally reaffirms the central position of HBCUs in growing athletic expertise and preserving cultural heritage by sport.
