Tennessee State head coach Eddie George has been vocal about HBCU issues during his tenure at the HBCU. But, he took to the Big South-OVC media call this week to shine an even brighter light on the Nashville-based HBCU's battle to get the billions of dollars owed from decades of underfunding.

“I have a vested interest [in this] clearly. This is bigger than the athletic program,” George said when he was asked about Tennessee State's push for equitable funding from the state government. “It’s $2.1 billion dollars that could really help this university become elite. I don’t know why it’s been so long. I think we can look across the board holistically across the country at every HBCU and see they have been underfunded. Let’s call it what it is — systemic racism. I think the opportunity now is to rectify this situation and figure out how we could write this wrong.

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In September, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack sent a letter to 16 governors of states with 1890 Land Grant HBCUs, including Tennessee State calling on them to address a long-standing funding disparity of $12 million. This discrepancy has persisted for decades.

Governor Bill Lee set aside $250 million in his FY2022 state budget for Tennessee State, which was described as a “one-time investment”. While this allocation is a positive step for the Nashville-based HBCU, it is only a fraction of the amount owed due to years of underfunding. According to Cardona's letter, based on data from 1987 to 2020 analyzed by the Department of Education, the state is indebted to Tennessee State for $2.1 billion.

Tennesee State recently held a Town Hall that featured Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump, where Crump suggested that the HBCU might sue the state for the $2.1 billion owed.