An Urban College Experience

On February 29, March 1 and March 2, college baseball held the Urban Invitational Tournament, co-hosted by cross-town rivals USC and UCLA. The games were played at Dedeaux Field, Jackie Robinson Stadium and at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California.

This all sounds great and noble, bringing baseball to the inner cities where participation is rapidly declining. You can't have two better hosts than the major Los Angeles colleges, as Los Angeles is an urban environment if ever one existed in this country.

Now, dictionary.com defines "urban" to mean "1. of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town; 2. living in a city; or 3 characteristic of or accustomed to cities; citified".

Given that definition of the word "urban", who did the NCAA schedule to play USC and UCLA in the Urban Invitational, none other than Southern University and Bethune-Cookman University from the bustling metropolises (metropoli?) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Daytona Beach, Florida. Not to diminish the fine the cities of Baton Rouge and Daytona Beach, but according to the U.S. Census, their populations in 2006 were 229,553 and 64,183 respectively. The combined population of these two cities is less that 8 percent of the total population of Los Angeles, which as of 2006 was 3,849,378.

I wonder what could make the NCAA think that Southern and Bethune-Cookman are "urban". In searching for the answer I went straight to the websites of the schools. First I looked at Southern's and I found its Mission Statement. "The mission of Southern University and A & M College, an Historically Black, 1890 land-grant institution, is to provide opportunities for a diverse student population to achieve a high quality, global educational experience, to engage in scholarly, research and creative activities, and to give meaningful public service to the community, the state, the nation, and the world, so that Southern University graduates are competent, informed and productive citizens".

I then went to Bethune-Cookman's website to see what it would have in common with Southern University so that they would both be considered urban. From the mission portion of its website, I think I found the connection. "Founded by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune in 1904, Bethune-Cookman University is an historically Black, United Methodist Church-related comprehensive university offering baccalaureate and master degrees."

Now I get it. Because they are both historically Black universities, they must be urban, well, at least to the NCAA. I am sure that the NCAA will tell us that it is because every one of Southern and Bethune-Cookman's students come from large cities, or at least all of their baseball players do. Since we can all understand the absurdity of that statement, I won't bother to bore you with any more statistics, but rest assure that the answer to those questions are "No".

Perhaps the NCAA would use the location of the tournament as the inspiration for the name "urban". If so, then why have both LA schools participate?

I laud the NCAA for wanting to bring baseball to places where the appreciation for the sport may be lagging, all the while allowing schools which may not ordinarily have the opportunity to play against traditional Pac-10 powers that ability. But don't denigrate those schools, their players, their alumni and fans by calling the tournament "urban".

In fact, don't insult the rest of us either.