compared to their peer conferences. I get that these conferences served a valuable purpose during the Jim Crow Era. However, it may be time to ask if they still serve a purpose or not. HBCUs like Tennessee State, Hampton, NC A&T, West Virginia State, and Xavier University of Louisiana (NAIA school) have all reached the conclusion that being a member of a historically black conference is more of a hindrance than a benefit to the development of the HBCU particularly when you factor in that many HBCUs have been forced to recruit a lot more non-blacks in order to field certain non-revenue teams (i.e. baseball and softball).

I do think you are right that more HBCUs will seek to join other conferences in the future. FWIW the MEAC has even started to wonder if its days are numbered given that the Bethune-Cookman and FAMU left to join the SWAC and Hampton and NC A&T left to join the Big South. A primary concern for the MEAC is that if too many members end up leaving the conference, then the MEAC could lose its automatic bids to the various NCAA Tournaments. Given that the MEAC doesn't compete in the NCAA DI Football Tournament (aka the DI-FCS Playoffs), the MEAC is concern that it may not have enough football members, including football-only members, to be recognized as a football conference by the NCAA. Here's an article I found that talks about the MEAC concern about its future as a conference.

"To maintain Div. I standing, conferences have to have seven institutions that have been a part of the conference for eight consecutive years and offer the right mix of sports, he explained."

This NCAA DI requirement is what ultimately doomed the Great West Conference (GWC). The GWC was a DI conference founded in 2004 and eventually dissolved on July 1, 2013 because it could never have enough members stick around long enough to be officially recognized as a DI conference and receive the automatic bids to the various NCAA tournaments that came along with the recognition.