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While ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith may not be everyone’s cup of tea these days, there’s no denying that he ranks among sports media’s biggest supporters of historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs). And in a recent podcast episode, he revealed just how much he’s going to be giving to HBCUs in the very near future.
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Last week Smith got into a controversy over the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) after receiving a “Thumbs Down” award from them. In response, refuted the reasoning behind receiving that criticism before declaring that he’s going to be paying it forward by workout out a deal to help broadcast HBCU basketball games.
Smith said he’s going to be looking for more Black people to work as on-air talent, producers and other jobs to help him.
“Got something coming down the pike, by the way,” Smith said. “I’m about to ink a deal where we’re broadcasting HBCU basketball games. I’m gonna need some Black folks working for me. As talent and producers and beyond.”
Where to Watch
Smith didn’t specify where those HBCU basketball games are going to be broadcast, but Awful Announcing suggested that his Straight Shooter Media company would be the production company.
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Awful Announcing also noted that the HBCU GO streaming service or even the BET network could be broadcasting the games.
It’s also not entirely clear if Smith intends to call any of those games himself or if he just intends to support the broadcast production.
Smith attended Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina on a basketball scholarship. After a knee injury ended his career, he began writing for the university’s newspaper and his career as a journalist took off from there.
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This story was originally published August 18, 2026 at 8:28 AM.