Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference

You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness.

It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, or MEAC, was founded in 1970 as a Division II conference. Its members are in the southeastern and mid-atlantic United States, and are HBCUs. Its eight members are located in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It has had members move in and out of the conference throughout its existence, but has not added any new school since Savannah State in 2011 — that school went to Division II in 2017.

The format for the tournament is different for men’s and women’s basketball, as Coppin State is not eligible for the men’s tournament due to academic penalties. The women’s team, however, qualifies — that means the men’s tournament will include seven teams, and the women’s the full eight members.

The conference’s automatic bid, awarded to the MEAC tournament champion, will be the only way for one of these teams from either men’s or women’s basketball to participate in March Madness. Howard has won the men’s auto bid in two of the last three seasons, with Norfolk State grabbing it in 2025, while Norfolk State has come away with the lone MEAC bid in each of the last three seasons for the women’s side.

MEAC — Men’s College Basketball

Leaders:

• Points Per Game: Bryce Harris, Howard, 17.4
• Rebounds Per Game: Bryce Harris, Howard, 6.7
• Assists Per Game: Elijah Davis, Morgan State, 6.1
• Steals Per Game: Dionte Johnson, North Carolina Central, 2.4
• Blocks Per Game: Kelechi Okworogwo, North Carolina Central, 1.3

Howard is first in the conference at 10-3, which does not put it that far ahead of the teams directly behind it in the standings. However, as far as overall record goes, Howard is well in front: it’s 20-10 overall, with the next-best such record Norfolk State’s 15-15. Morgan State is in between the two in the MEAC standings, at 9-4.

North Carolina Central is tied with Norfolk State at 8-5, then the rest of the conference is under .500. South Carolina State is 6-7, Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State both 5-8 and Delaware State is 1-12. Coppin State is not eligible for the men’s MEAC tournament due to the aforementioned academic penalties, which means Delaware State will be the 7-seed and face whichever team ends up being the 2-seed once standings are finalized. Delaware State is, through March 4, the only team to have locked in a specific seed for the MEAC tournament.

Howard is also the top team in the conference in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, coming in at 203. It’s the only team in the conference anywhere near that high in the standings, too, as the second-best is Norfolk State at 311. Every other team in the MEAC is one of the bottom-30 in Division I men’s basketball: North Carolina Central is 338th, UMES 347th, Morgan State 352nd, South Carolina State 358th, Coppin State 362nd and Delaware State second-to-last in the country.

Chances are good that it will be Howard State winning the automatic bid, given it’s the top team by NET and has the best player in the conference by Player Efficiency Rating, Bryce Harris. The fifth-year guard led the MEAC in both rebounds per game and scoring, is first in Defensive Rating and second in Offensive Rating. His numbers are not exceptional in any of these categories, but that says more about what the competition lacks than Harris himself.

All that being said, Howard did lose three conference games this season — this is not a team that is or has been unstoppable in conference play. The Bison lost to South Carolina State at the start of MEAC play, then Maryland Eastern right after. Morgan State also defeated Howard in January. Since then, however, it’s won eight-straight conference games, with its only loss in that stretch a non-conference one against Yale, 87-81. There are plenty of questions left to be answered, and Howard hasn’t actually locked up the top seed yet, since it plays Norfolk State in the regular-season finale with Morgan State just a game back.

MEAC - Women’s College Basketball

Leaders:

• Points Per Game: Zennia Thomas, Howard, 15.3
• Rebounds Per Game: Zennia Thomas, Howard, 7.8
• Assists Per Game: Jasha Clinton, Norfolk State, 3.9
• Steals Per Game: Jasha Clinton, Norfolk State, 3.4
• Blocks Per Game: Carmen Kweti, Norfolk State, 1.5

Things are a bit better on the women’s side of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. There, Howard is once again in first, but sits 157th in NET and with a 12-1 record in conference play and 22-7 overall. Norfolk State is in second in both the conference and NET, at 11-2 and 207. UMES comes in at 252, then Coppin State is 291. Four teams in the top 300, and one nearly top-150, is a significant difference from the men’s side where just one team is top-250 and no others are even top-300.

None of the seeding has been set yet, as Norfolk State is a game back of Howard, and Maryland Eastern Shore is a game back of Norfolk State. Coppin State is 6-7, North Carolina Central and Delaware State both 4-9, Morgan State 3-10 and South Carolina State 2-11.

Howard’s Zennia Thomas is the top player in the conference by PER (25.2), but the senior forward is also the MEAC’s leading scorer (15.3 points per game) and rebounder (7.8). Five of the top-20 players in the conference in PER are on Howard’s roster: Thomas, then senior forward Nile Miller (19.7) is third, junior guard Zoe Stewart is ninth (16.3), freshman guard Ariella Henigan 14th (14.1) and junior guard Destiny Bynum-Johnson (12.6) is 18th. Norfolk State comes close to that level of depth, with four of the top 20 players, so it’s not like the Bison are entirely running away with things here. Still, the reason they are on top, even if by a game, is explained by this depth.

There are no byes in the tournament, but the top team does get a seeding advantage, as it will face the 8-seed in the first round. A slightly easier path to the championship is not the massive advantage of, say, Big Ten top seeds getting to skip multiple rounds in order to face a team that’s played multiple games multiple days while they are well-rested, but a team like Howard with a single loss getting to take on, say, a team that is 2-12 isn’t a bad prize. It it goes well, there will be rest to find in that matchup, too.