In CIAA Football this year, Virginia Union earned the confidence of CIAA coaches while Johnson C. Smith earned the respect of national HBCU voters. The split says as much about how each group evaluated the 2026 season as it does about the conference’s two leading championship contenders.
CIAA football rarely enters a season with a legitimate debate over who deserves to be the conference favorite. This year is different.
Johnson C. Smith closed the 2025 season by defeating Virginia Union 45–21 in the CIAA Football Championship. It captured the program’s first conference title since 1969 and earning a trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs. Eight months later, however, the coaches who spend every season preparing for both programs voted VUU as the preseason favorite. The inaugural Black College Football Poll ranked the Golden Bulls as the No. 1 Division II HBCU team in the country.
Both groups evaluated the same conference. Both watched the same championship game. Yet they reached different conclusions.
The difference isn’t evidence that one poll got it right and the other got it wrong. Instead, it reflects two distinct ways of evaluating a football team entering a new season. CIAA coaches appear to have projected which roster gives a team the best chance to survive another conference schedule. National HBCU voters rewarded the defending champion while recognizing a program that believes last year’s title was only the beginning.
Why CIAA Football Coaches Stayed With Virginia Union
For Virginia Union, the coaches’ vote wasn’t built on one afternoon in Durham. It was built on everything that happened before it.
The Panthers completed a perfect 7–0 run through CIAA play, earned another trip to the conference championship and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs. That consistency has defined Alvin Parker’s tenure, and it helps explain why the people who face Virginia Union every season continue to view the Panthers as the conference standard.
Parker never dismissed the disappointment of losing the championship game, but during CIAA Football Media Day he repeatedly returned to what his program accomplished over the course of the season.
“I think some of the things that we accomplished last year we hadn’t accomplished since I’ve been here,” Parker said. “We hadn’t had an undefeated run in the regular season.”
More revealing was how Parker described the experience returning to his locker room.
“Every member of our roster that’s returning has been to postseason play,” he said. “All of the guys from my returning seniors all the way down to my sophomores have played in a championship and a playoff game.”
That perspective offers perhaps the clearest explanation for the coaches’ vote. Virginia Union returns quarterback RJ Rosales, an experienced offensive line and a roster Parker believes already understands what it takes to compete for championships. Replacing All-American running back Curtis Allen will not be easy, but the Panthers believe Treyvon Tinsley can step into a larger role behind a veteran front that helped establish one of the CIAA’s most productive rushing attacks.
Parker also pointed to the program’s Play 411 philosophy, describing it as more than a football slogan. It’s the foundation of a culture built on accountability, leadership and purpose, one that has kept Virginia Union competing for championships year after year.
Why HBCU Voters Chose Johnson C. Smith
Johnson C. Smith’s argument begins with the one accomplishment every program wants on its résumé.
The Golden Bulls won the CIAA championship.
They didn’t simply edge Virginia Union. They controlled the title game from the opening quarter and turned one of the conference’s most anticipated matchups into a convincing victory. For national voters, that result carried considerable weight, especially when paired with a 10-win season and another NCAA playoff appearance.
Maurice Flowers views the championship as confirmation that the program’s long-term plan is working.
“The same goals that we had in ’22, our first year, are the same goals we have now,” Flowers said during Media Day. “We’ve been consistent. We’ve recruited well, and as you improve your program, your recruiting improves.”
That consistency is evident throughout the roster. Johnson C. Smith led the conference with six Preseason All-CIAA selections, including offensive linemen Jamari Mason, Robert Early and Marcus Andrews, wide receiver Brian Lane, running back Bobby Smith and linebacker Vince Hill. Those returning veterans are joined by one of the conference’s most notable transfer classes, highlighted by former UCLA quarterback Parker McQuarrie and SIAC Offensive Player of the Year Fabian Duncan.
Flowers made it clear that preseason recognition carries little value if it changes the program’s focus.
“We treat it like perfume,” he said. “Perfume is great to smell, but it’s dangerous to taste.”
The quote drew laughs at Media Day, but it also revealed the mindset inside the Golden Bulls’ program. Johnson C. Smith isn’t approaching 2026 as a team trying to defend one championship. It believes it has built a program capable of competing for one every season.
Coaches Saw Continuity. National Voters Saw Momentum
The disagreement between the two polls becomes easier to understand when the football is separated from the rankings.
CIAA coaches know how difficult it is to replace experience. They watched Virginia Union navigate another undefeated conference season, and they understand the value of returning a quarterback, veteran leadership and players who have already experienced championship football.
National HBCU voters looked at a different set of facts. Johnson C. Smith won the conference championship, returned more preseason all-conference players than any team in the league and strengthened its roster through recruiting and the transfer portal. Those accomplishments made the Golden Bulls a logical choice to open the season as the nation’s top-ranked Division II HBCU program.
Neither perspective ignores the other team’s accomplishments. They simply place different emphasis on what matters most entering a new season.
The CIAA Race Is Just Getting Started
Preseason polls rarely decide championships, but they often reveal how knowledgeable football observers interpret the same evidence.
Virginia Union enters the season with the confidence of the coaches who compete against the Panthers every fall. Johnson C. Smith enters with the confidence that comes from winning the conference championship and proving it can perform on the biggest stage.
Those aren’t conflicting stories. They’re two compelling arguments for why the CIAA could once again produce one of the most competitive races in HBCU football.
Whether the coaches’ faith in Virginia Union or the national voters’ belief in Johnson C. Smith proves correct won’t be determined by a ballot cast in July. It will be decided over another demanding CIAA football season, where the conference’s two premier programs appear headed for another collision with a championship once again on the line.
I don’t care who’s the Leader in the CIAA Polls is, I just want to be able to see some of those games on HBCU GO. The Only place where there is any Consistent Coverage for our Conference, thus far.