 the mid-eastern athletic conference (meac) is a collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (hbcus) in the southeastern and the mid-atlantic united states. it participates in the national collegiate athletic association's division i, and in football, in the football championship subdivision (fcs). currently, the meac has automatic qualifying bids for ncaa postseason play in baseball (since 1994), menâs basketball (since 1981), womenâs basketball (since 1982), football (since 1996), softball (since 1995), men and womenâs tennis (since 1998), and volleyball (since 1994). bowling was officially sanctioned as a meac governed sport in 1999. before that season, the meac was the first conference to secure ncaa sanctioning for womenâs bowling by adopting the club sport prior to the 1996-97 school year. ==history== in 1969, a group, whose members were long associated with interscholastic athletics, met in durham, north carolina with the purpose of discussing the organization of a new conference. after the formulation of a committee, and their research reported, seven institutions: delaware state university, howard university, university of maryland eastern shore, morgan state university, north carolina a&t state university, north carolina central university and south carolina state college agreed to become the mid-eastern athletic conference.meac history the conference's main goals were to establish and supervise an intercollegiate athletic program among a group of educational institutions that shared the same academic standards and philosophy of co-curricular activities and seek status as a division i conference for all of its sports. the conference was confirmed in 1970, and had its first season of competition in football in 1971. the meac has had to date, three full-time commissioners. in 1978, the meac selected its first full-time commission
Organizations_established_in_1970 Sports_in_the_Eastern_United_States Sports_in_the_Southern_United_States