Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are a celebrated bedrock of Black excellence, with a proven track record of producing leaders in business, sports, the arts, and more, as well as rosters of incredible athletes. However, there’s an undeniable broken link in the pipeline between HBCU talent and draftees into the National Football League (NFL).

Every year, over 1,000 HBCU football players compete across four NCAA conferences for titles and glory, but very few are ever chosen for the NFL. In fact, from 2010 to 2019, there were only 26 HBCU players selected from he draft. This was a record low of 3% compared to athletes chosen from non-HBCU schools. In 2021, not even one HBCU player was drafted.