I’m really quite surprised that the annual Honda Battle of the Bands hasn’t reached the kind of national media spotlight that the Bayou Classic has reached. Granted, the Bayou Classic has a 36-year, media assisted history behind it. But everyone knows that HBCUs are the occasional darlings of the college sports culture for one reason.

Marching bands.

People of all ages and races who haven’t grown up with connection to black college marching bands are always amazed to see such expert musicianship paired with scintillating showmanship. And when you add the school-inspired legacies and traditions in with their performances, you get one of the best concerts/dance revues you will ever see.

The Battle of the Bands has no problem finding sponsorship, and spreading the word about the annual event. But  I really am shocked that a television network  hasn’t capitalized on the opportunity to make money of black college bands while exposing their culture. How many people do we know that would rather watch the Battle of the Bands instead of a black college football championship game? How many times have you left a black college football game immediately after halftime?

And I’m not saying that HBCUs should exploit the bands for exposure or money. They are the ultimate ambassadors to black college culture; people get to know black colleges through the sights and sounds of the band. So the bands are in a position, on a conference and institutional level, to generate more revenues from the excitement that follows them far beyond the eight bands that are chosen to compete in the annual Battle.

If they were smart, the bands would organize and align like the athletic conferences, and structure regular regional and national competitions to create exposure and revenue. If football and basketball teams can do it in the fall and winter, why can’t spring or summer be the band season? And I don’t want to hear the excuses about student musicians needing time for school work and social life, because if you’ve gone to an HBCU, you know the band practices more than the football team, and gets up earlier than the ROTC for the same.

We’ve seen it with events like Band Brawl, and we know that black college marching bands have a passionate following with sites like MarchingSport.com, TheWhoa.com, and The5thQuarter.com. And that’s without mentioning the thousands of posters and commenters on YouTube who follow and critique HBCU band culture religiously.

Black college bands have a voice that resonates. And for as many people that beckon to its call, they aren’t getting nearly the kind of exposure and reward that they are worth.  People are only exposed to it in bass-rich, brass-charged streaks of sound. Black college bands could be far more popular, far more reaching than they currently are. But like most things in black college culture, the vision for greater heights usually remains bridled by tradition and fear.