I know what many HBCU football fans are thinking right now. Here's another article about players who have left the HBCU football scene. Why are Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter still being discussed, now that they’ve completed a full season at Colorado? But, bear with me for the duration of this article, which is a thought experiment about perception.

The latest HBCU NFL Draft disappointment took me down a journey of awe and hopelessness as no HBCU Players were selected. I wondered where we went wrong and even if our players and programs did anything wrong. Why were there players abroad drafted before players from Howard and Florida A&M who were part of a Celebration Bowl that drew 1.5 million TV viewers on ABC last December?

It seems as if no matter how many FBS money games our teams play, how many non-HBCU FCS wins we get or national TV games our HBCUs are showcased in, we won't be able to reverse the stigma that plagues HBCU football. It's a widely held belief that HBCUs are less than in football. Gone are the days of Jerry Rice, Michael Strahan, Shannon Sharpe, and Steve “Air” McNair they say. Those types of players don't attend HBCUs anymore.

Yet, I watched and covered HBCU football and witnessed high levels of play every week. The same players who were game-changers on the gridiron didn't hear their names called this weekend but signed undrafted free-agent deals and received rookie mini-camp invites not even an hour after the end of the seventh round. If these prospects were good enough to draw post-draft interest, why not expend draft capital on them?

That's what made me think of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, once Jackson State standouts who made headlines for choosing to follow Deion Sanders to Jackson State and seemingly level the playing field for HBCU football. Both players, especially Shedeur Sanders, excelled at the HBCU level. In his two seasons with the Tigers, Shedeur threw for 6,983 yards and 70 touchdowns on 68% completion.

In the 2022 season, Shedeur Sanders finished with 3,752 yards passing and 40 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions on 70% completion. For comparison, 2024 top-pick out of USC Caleb Williams finished his 2023 campaign throwing for 3,633 yards and 30 touchdowns on on 69% completion. These numbers can be put in their broader context and I'm not saying that Shedeur would've been the number 1 pick in the NFL Draft out of JSU. But, would a player who put up those stats even with a schedule that featured no FBS competition and one non-HBCU, out-of-conference FCS game against Campbell get his shot at the next level? Or, would the stigma of HBCUs being “lesser competition” have plagued Sanders, even as the son of Coach Prime?

Shedeur wasn't removed from criticism as he made his HBCU-to-FBS jump to Colorado. None shined more than the admin of the College Football Nerds account comparing HBCU football to Florida high school football.

“You quickly realize on tape that Jackson State's competition is closer to 8A Florida high school ball than it is P5 FBS football. Most teams played way off coverage and gave up easy slants bc else they'd get burned (hence 71% comp). OLBs were slow. It makes projections hard,” @CFBNerds tweeted in August before Colorado's debut game against TCU.

Most of the nitpicking of Shedur's greatness at Jackson State was met with swift opposition but that didn't stop the mindset from festering. Many fans and prognosticators wanted to see him “prove it in the FBS”, which he did against TCU as he threw for Sanders threw for 510 yards and four touchdowns on 39/47 passing, setting a school record in the process. After the game in an interview with Fox Sports's Jenny Taft, he spoke about a lack of belief and the title of being a Power 5 player.

“Nobody believed in us, man, and it just showed me a lot about how people [are]. They let names and they let ‘Power 5′ and stuff get to they head. I think this is the highest passing yards that I've had in my life. I was just at an HBCU, you know what I mean? They ain't believe us, but God did.”

In a press conference after the TCU victory, Shedeur then went on to say that there wasn't as huge of a difference between FCS and HBCU football.

“’ll say the only difference between FCS & this level is that the d-line get off blocks if you try to scramble up, faster,” Sanders said in the press conference. “That’s it. Everything else…you got good players, you got good DBs, you got good receivers, everything like that. You just have more of those on the field at once…You gotta think, everybody on the field not going first round. A lot of people on the field may not get drafted. People fear names, I don’t fear names because I really don’t care.”

Sheduer's assessment of football at different levels, drawn from his personal experience of playing in both, is intriguing. If he has this honest assessment, why don't NFL scouts and executives view HBCU football the same way? Shedeur and Hunter aren't the only HBCU players who transferred to an FBS program and continued high levels of play.

His former Jackson State teammate Kevin Coleman saw success at Louisville and and former Alabama State standout Jacory Croskey-Merritt certainly found a way to excel at what is considered to be a “higher level” of football. Brian Cook found his way onto the Kansas City Chiefs after playing at Howard and then transferring to Cincinnati. He happens to be on the same team as Fayetteville State's Joshua Williams, who played Division II football in the CIAA.  There's talent spread across all of college football.

But, as HBCU players continue not to get drafted, it truly makes you wonder if Sheduer Sanders would've been taken off the board or if the view of HBCU football is so poor that even he would've been left to undrafted free agency. The easy answer is that he would've gotten drafted. His skill plus the promotional abilities of his father and the magnetism of the “Coach Prime” brand would've got him selected in the the third or fourth round at the lowest, second round at the highest.

It isn't lost on me that Shedeur now is predicted to be the top quarterback in the class of 2025, if not the #1 pick overall. This prediction by many in the college football world comes after he finished the 2023 season with 3,230 passing yards and 27 touchdowns on 69% competition for Colorado. This isn't far off from stats in his final season at Jackson State, minus two games as he left early against Washington State after being injured and sitting out in the Buffaloes's final game against Utah. He didn't become a diametrically different player after leaving the HBCU ranks.

So, what changed? It's simple to see. The perception of his game changed as he put up the same stats against what's perceived as tougher competition. And there lies the problem that extends to current and future HBCU prospects. You can be talented, have the stats, and have a high level of play against FBS and competitive FCS teams. But, until the mindsets shift around HBCU football and the talent that our guys have as opposed to FBS talent, there won't be meaningful change.