 HBCU Dutchess Radio, welcome back. Special guest today, two of them from our way of Jacksonville, Florida, with a big announcement and dialogue about potential, potential, potential new sports affiliation. Edward Waters College president, A. Zachary Faizon and new director of athletics of the Tigers, Paul Bryant, who are here to discuss a big announcement with one of our historically black athletic conferences. So gentlemen, again, a pleasure to have you on, brothers, an invitation from the Southern Instacollegiate Athletic Conference. So the Tigers, which have been a mainstay in EIA, could be, could be moving to division two NCAA. Now, this is just an invitation, correct? That's correct, Jared. That's correct. It's an invitation. It's one we're very, very excited about. It does portend some exciting developments for EWC, athletically and on the whole for our institution going forward. So we're really, really excited that President French and the Council of Presidents at the SISC, along with the commissioner, Greg Moore, thought enough of Edward Waters College to extend us an invitation. Director Bryant, first, what are your impressions of Edward Waters athletics? What attracted you to the job? And then to take on such a big invitation at this juncture of your tenure there. What is your vision for that potential joining that conference? Well, I'll tell you why I chose Edward Waters. I saw the vision of President Faizon and I saw what he was attempting to do with the athletics department. And Edward Waters in general. And I wanted to be a part of that. This is about to be a transformational step for us. And we're excited to be a part. And particularly for me and my career, I think this is the next step for me. And so that's why I chose Edward Waters. And Edward Waters athletics department, it's on the cusp of doing some great things. And again, wanting to be a part of that was a major factor for me. Now, having the invitation from the SISC was something that just, it was great because as you know, even when you just start thinking about moving to a next level, you have to have that conference affiliation. And having that conference affiliation with the SISC, which is one of the top conferences in division two, made it very something that we were just very late at the half. So that's another reason why I chose Edward Waters. For both of you brothers, talk about the opportunities that come out of something like this. Obviously, athletics is a big, big driver of student interest in the institution. It's a big driver of civic engagement of your community. But there are costs associated with it. So what do you guys project will be the financial opportunities primarily of bringing a new athletic brand to the campus? Right. And Jared, it's interesting that you asked that. We all kind of chuckled when you mentioned the cost, so that's been something that's kind of been a consistent question. And uniquely for EWC though, the costs that are usually associated with this kind of potential move are costs that EWC, for example, is already extending. So most of the times, most of, for example, we're members of the GCAC conference in the NAIA, which with other HBCUs, you know, Dillard, Rust, Xavier, Talladega, Tougaloo, but here's what sets EWC apart. We're the only institution that has a football program and have had one for almost two decades. So that usually is what the heavy lift is from a financial perspective is it's football. Well, again, we've already had football for two decades. So for us, when we're looking at this, at least preliminarily, we're looking at a potential savings from a number of different perspectives, I'll give you one. Travel is often an exorbitant cost for athletic programs. Well, right now as members of the GCAC, we're traveling, I'm not traveling all the way to Louisiana two and three times a year for my basketball, all of my non, all of my sports with professional football, I'm traveling to West Mississippi, Arkansas, when EWC sits right smack dab in the footprint of the SAC, the great majority of the schools in the SAC rather. We're within five, six hours of Fort Valley, Savannah, Albany, Tuskegee, Atlanta, and AU Center, and Morehouse, and Clark, and so for us, we really see it as a revenue generator in terms of the branding of our institution. We see it as a revenue generator in terms of eliciting a lot more excitement from an enrollment perspective, and we actually think that from an athletic budgetary perspective, we actually could experience some savings from a number of different perspectives. So again, we'll kind of be exploring and getting more granular with our analysis as we look at this going forward, but at least preliminarily, we see it as an asset for us, even from a financial perspective. We don't think that there's gonna be that heavy of a lift because many of the drivers from a revenue perspective and a financial impact perspective, we're already expending. And if you couple that with the fact that, for example, we already have a new stadium that's coming online. We're getting ready to break ground on a new stadium, the first on-campus stadium at EWC, but probably within the next 90 to 120 days. So there's just a lot of synergy and the planets are kind of aligning even from a financial impact perspective that we believe would potentially enable us to make this move and it not be one that's gonna be financially onerous. Director Bryant, so I don't want the question to come off as me being slick or funny, but you've been a part of some huge HBCU sports brands, right? Yes. Gremlin South Carolina State. I mean, to the point that people on the outside look at what you do with football and what you do with athletics is almost on par with or sometimes beyond what matters with the actual institution. Is the fan base, is this like a vacation for you? Not to be in a situation where who you hire as the football coach is more important than who's the president and who, you know. Hey, I can assure you, this is not a vacation for him, that I give you. But do you understand what I'm saying? Like these are, I mean, I don't want to disrespect it. I don't want to be slick at all, but I'm just saying they got whole message boards dedicated to some of the places where my brother's been. I'm sure they're Tiger message boards. I'm just saying. Yeah, let me tell you this. We as athletic directors at every level do the same thing. It's just the only difference is our budget. And so no, this is a task that I feel in my career that I feel that this is the time to get this done. I've had the opportunity to assist another institution transitioning if that was, you know, back in Ohio. But if that's the vision that, and the way we want to go, I think I'm the right man to get it done. And no, this is not a vacation. There are a lot of things that need to get done. And I'm excited to have the opportunity to lead that. I didn't mean it from a work perspective, certainly. I meant in terms of like rabbit fans. We got you, we're gonna let you fly out with that. We're gonna let you fly out with that. You good. Well, speaking, but that actually leads me to my second question, because it's not to say that EWC fans aren't rabbit. I know the president is a rabbit fan. Sometimes you fuss at the refs. Can you talk about your role as the fan in chief and what this kind of development will give you the opportunity to do as like the head booster, the head fan, the head guy kind of spearheading the way that the energy that goes to Tiger Athletics. And so first, I'm not understanding that my rabbit fandom reputation has preceded me. I had no idea that you knew that I've been kind of after the refs at some tournament games and things like that. I'm on Instagram too, brother, don't. We, you know, so for us, you know, this potential move, you know, and it's no shade to our current affiliation or our previous affiliation, particularly from a football perspective. But I just, you know, we just keep it all the way 1000 as the students like to say. From a football perspective, which is football is your signature programs at HBCUs for the most part. It's what generates the most interest and fandom. So although we've had a football program since 2001, we've never played in all HBCUs schedule. Typically, we might get one HBCU on our schedule. We're playing, I won't call any names, but let's just say Southwest Directional Christian School of the Alps in the second pole of the north of, you know, Boilarderdale. And so, you know, from our perspective and from even our alum's perspective and folks in the community, they're looking for an HBCU game to experience. I'm a graduate of an HBCU. And so, and it worked at five HBCUs. So I understood and could empathize with what I was hearing my alum share and say about, hey, we want to get behind our athletic program, but we want a true authentic HBCU experience. I'll share this with you, for example. I'm also, other than Taladega, the only other institution in the GCAC conference that has a marching band, okay? So, and Taladega doesn't have a football program. So I have a football program and a marching band, both of which are drivers for enrollment for me and they have the potential to grow and expand, especially if, you know, fourth quarter, you know, band heads want to be able to do that fourth quarter. I'm not at fifth quarter, excuse me, with other HBCUs that have bands. And so again, that's why, you know, this exploration is just so on time. And from my perspective, it's probably long overdue that EWC really took a hard look at how we might position existing programs that we have and position the institution to be able to experience some growth and really bring a spotlight to EWC, not only here in Jacksonville and on the First Coast, but really, you know, advance our brand from a national perspective. Let's talk about that. So there are a lot of things that Edward Waters is doing to draw attention locally and regionally, along with, you know, the sports announcement, you guys also just recently announced your plans to match scholarship allocations, to help students get in and complete on time without finances being a primary concern. Along with those things, with so many things going on, and this is particularly, Vady, Brian, do you think that there will be in a, you know, in a pretty sports rich town, a place for Edward Waters to grab those headlines, to get those features, to get the coaches and the athletes known, what kind of things have you heard from the community that say they're ready, you know, for a college football basketball staple in the city? Well, I think that there is room and we have our own niche. You know, when you are looking for a way to get into the community, you have to have a niche and I think we have our own niche. And as president stated, being one of the only HBCUs around in the state of Florida to be, to have the band, to have the football program, it's going to be critical for our coaches and our players to get in the community for one, and two, to be successful. There's a,