Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have done so much with so little for so long that it seems that they can do anything with nothing.

Thanks to a grant from the NCAA, MEAC member institutions Coppin State and Norfolk State have the opportunity to show what they can do when they have more adequate funds.

Coppin State and Norfolk State are among six institutions - four of them HBCUs - that the NCAA selected to receive funds as part of the Limited-Resource Institutions Grant Pilot Program, a three-year initiative aimed at increasing student-athlete academic performance.

"We're honored and very much appreciative of being a recipient,'' Norfolk State president Dr. Tony Atwater says. "We know that there was a lot of competition involved in this grant initiative. Our staff, our athletic director and our whole team is very committed to the spirit of this grant award program, as am I.''

The NCAA Executive Committee approved the grant program pilot in August of 2012 with $4.365 million in funds that remained from the White Case settlement. The settlement resulted from a class action suit filed in 2006 on behalf of four former student-athletes at Stanford, UCLA, San Francisco and Texas-El Paso.

Coppin State was approved for a total of $900,000, and Norfolk State will receive $330,000. Other schools that will receive funding are Cal State-Northridge ($900,000), Jackson State ($900,000), Tennessee State ($900,000) and Morehead State ($360,000).

"News of the NCAA grant speaks to Coppin State University's commitment to our student-athletes beyond the court," said Coppin State president Dr. Reginald Avery. "This grant will enable Coppin State to support our student-athletes with enhanced technology, increased student and faculty engagement and additional staff."

The schools will begin receiving grant money this month.

When Coppin State hired Derrick Ramsey as athletic director in 2008, it had a 56% graduation rate for athletes. He guaranteed that in five years the graduation rate would be at 80% in five years. It was up to 69.3% last year, and Ramsey says the Limited Resources grant will help push it to the target number. He says the grant will provide funds for athletes to attend summer school and also allows increased scholarship money for fifth-year seniors who exhausted their eligibility.

"This is a huge shot in the arm at the right time,'' Ramsey says. "It will allow me to do all things I wanted to do, put our kids in summer school, put our kids in winter-mester (the period between the winter and spring semesters), to ensure that they not only graduate in four years. We're going to speed that up as well. We're going to try to do things that have never been done.''

Norfolk State's application included a plan to use the grant to hire additional personnel to assist with academic advising, increase funds available for student-athletes to attend summer school and to start a summer bridge program that will help incoming freshmen athletes with their orientation to college.

"I thought we had a strong application,'' Norfolk State athletic director Marty Miller says. "We had some very significant initiatives to help us improve our APR and academic success.''

Division I schools in the non-Football Bowl Subdivision and in the bottom 10% of resources as determined by per capita institutional expenditures, athletics department funding and Pell Grant aid were eligible to apply for the program. Schools could request a maximum of $300,000 a year for three years. They are required to match grant dollars each year of the program with either direct funds or in-kind contributions. In the first year the institution must commit a 25% match, 50% the second year and 75% in the third year. 

The recipients are also required to demonstrate that they are implementing the initiatives that they detailed in their applications and must make reports twice a year. Funding can be reduced or taken away if they fail to implement the terms of the grant and they will be required to reimburse the NCAA.

Miller and Ramsey are confident their schools will fulfill the terms of the grant.

"We don't feel we'll have a difficult task to reach our goals,'' Miller says. "We're pretty much on track anyway. We think we will be able to meet the challenge. Don't get me wrong. None of this is easy. I think we'll be prepared to meet the challenge and the requirements.''

"It's a great opportunity for Coppin State,'' Ramsey says. "We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that the NCAA understands that if given resources, we can do as well as the majority institutions or the majority of institutions that have funding that's better than what we have.''

Grant recipients were selected by a committee made up of representatives from the NCAA membership and staff. The group considered several criteria including presidential oversight, involvement of key staff, goals identified by the institution, the institution's ability to match grant funds, the demonstrated sustainability of the initiative, the institution's history in APP, and institution's infractions history.

Ramsey says that while Coppin State is the beneficiary of the grant, his school is carrying the banner for the entire conference and other HBCUs.

"We can't fail. That's not an option,'' he says. Yes, it's Coppin State, but we're wearing the brand of the MEAC. We can't embarrass the other 12 institutions. It goes much farther, much farther than just Coppin State. There were some SWAC schools that tried to get it that didn't get it. We're representing them as well. The easy is part is behind us. We have to roll up our sleeves and work.''