Saturday’s Southern Heritage Classic in Memphis featuring Jackson St. and Tennessee St. had the potential to be a great one.
While Eddie George kept his Tigers in the game, Deion Sanders’ Tigers simply had too much firepower and eventually pulled away to win the game, 16-3.
Afterward, while many celebrated a good event and reveled in the pageantry and fun-filled family atmosphere pulsating throughout the parking lot, others lamented that this would be Jackson St.’s final appearance in the Classic.
In March, Sanders made it known that after this year’s game he was done participating in the Classic.
It marked the end of an annual HBCU event that began in 1990, with the two Tigers teams facing off a total of 29 times.
Fans have a right to be disappointed in Sanders’ decision. The game drew big crowds, especially now that former NFL stars George and Sander were coaching the two teams.
This year’s event attracted over 51,000 fans for the 55th meeting between the two teams since 1949.
But the Classic is about much more than the gridiron product though.
It brings families together, fosters a fan-friendly atmosphere, generates money for some great causes and helps support local businesses.
That’s great, yet that’s what HBCU Classics primarily do, so it’s not abnormal.
But what they historically fail to do is support the bank accounts of team athletic departments, sometimes resulting in minimal gain or actual losses.
That’s what Deion recognizes, and that’s why he’s chosen to break from tradition in order to secure the future of Jackson St. football.
And he wants to spread the necessity of financial security to HBCU athletics as a whole.
For HBCU traditionalists, it’s a painful and infuriating decision.
But for HBCU realists, while sad, it’s a completely understandable one.
And it’s the correct move to make.
Negotiate Up, Not Down
For HBCUs to continue their recent hot streak, they must focus on financial security and growth.
While the “pay-for-play/money” games greatly benefit their institutions, HBCU teams can no longer thrive on this payday from one single game.
With all of the hype surrounding Jackson St., all that Deion has brought to the program and all of the talent they’re snatching away from Power 5 schools, the Tigers should be commanding paydays like that of Appalachian State.
The Mountaineers received a reported $1.5 million to travel to Texas A&M and beat the Aggies on their home field, 17-14.
Even teams like Alabama St. and North Carolina Central are reaping big FBS paydays. UCLA will pay them $590,000 and $700,000, respectively, over the next two years to travel west to play the Bruins.
Meanwhile, Jackson St., the most talked about program in HBCU football, is reportedly making nothing from playing in the Southern Heritage Classic.
“It’s a hustle,” Sanders said on the Pardon My Take podcast about the Classic (although he didn’t mention it by name). “We’re losing money, tremendously. This particular classic that you’re talking about, first of all, why would two colleges need a promoter? You’re two colleges and you have A.D.s, why would you need a promoter, that’s number one.
“Secondly, I think the fee was like over 30 years, $6 million. That’s peanuts. So by the time you take seven buses for the band, four buses for the players, couple (buses) for people, assistants, hotel accommodations, food, you’re out of that. That $180-200 grand, you’re out of that. So you didn’t make nothing. You really came up there on a blank trip. We gotta stop that foolishness. The first thing we need to take care of as HBCUs is the business aspect of everything, and that’s something we’re changing right now. We’re taking care of business.”
And that’s what he’s doing by pulling out of games that are money-earning deterrents.
Jackson St. has an estimated athletic budget of less than $10 million. That’s not a figure that provides great hope for future growth.
Even North Dakota State, which has won nine of the last eleven FCS titles, has an operating budget of almost $25 million.
So Deion is changing the game, and the mindset, to forge a path paved by a fiscal perspective.
It’s a path fully understood and endorsed by former Alabama St. athletic director Jennifer L. Williams, who addressed some of the underlying issues regarding “money games”.
“It’s a necessity for these games to happen,” Williams said. “Most of the time, people don’t even realize, the money doesn’t even go directly to the athletic department — it goes to the university. Which we sometimes deem ‘the black hole.’ So teams are going out here making these sacrifices to support the university as a whole.”
That’s a fact not many outside of the HBCU fanbase understand.
“In order for this to stop, you’re going to need some better leadership from a financial standpoint,” said Williams. “And you’re going to need alumni to give to the athletic department and the university not just when they feel like it or things are going well.”
Enter Deion Sanders.
Since taking over as head coach, Sanders has done everything to change the tide of complacency and fiscal lethargy that has long hampered HBCU football.
He even led the Tigers to the Celebration Bowl last year and recently donated half his salary to complete the renovations on the team’s football facility.
Overall, Sanders has put traditionalists on notice that it’s time to either step up or step away.
He made it clear that he desires the best for all HBCU programs.
“Can we get together, and form a committee, or something and say ‘we’re not doing it unless we get a million,'” said Sanders about the payday games. “Negotiate up, but don’t negotiate down.
“And that money should go directly to the football department,” Sanders emphatically stated, echoing the sentiments of Williams.
The Future According to Coach Prime
Coach Sanders understands football and he understands money.
He knows that in order for Jackson St. to continue its ascent in college football, the two must work hand-in-hand, not independently.
Sanders is leveraging his position to aid in the program’s development.
We’ve written previously that because of his status and immediate success, Sanders has the unique opportunity to mold Jackson St. into an HBCU version of Notre Dame, where its independence, presence and tradition can demand bigger paydays.
Notre Dame is projected to command roughly $60 million annually when they negotiate their new media deal (it expires in 2025), a massive increase from the $25 million they’re earning now.
Imagine what Jackson St. could do with even a quarter of that money.
The ability to negotiate independent media contracts could alleviate many problems, including game broadcasts. This past weekend fans were frustrated because they didn’t know how to watch the Southern Heritage Classic as it wasn’t on a primary network or streaming platform.
He could also create new opportunities for his program.
Imagine establishing an annual “Red River Shootout” type rivalry event between Jackson St. and Tennessee St. minus the promoters and meager payouts. Instead, Sanders and George could jointly demand a big payment for the media rights to the game, or put it behind a paywall and charge a PPV fee. Then they can sell the game entitlement rights and other advertising opportunities and split the revenue.
Then they could play the game in a location that benefits the teams, fans, the schools, the community and local businesses that thrive during big rivalry games.
While this won’t make an immediate impact on the football operating budgets, it’s a step in the right direction toward a brighter financial future.
And that could become a blueprint for other HBCUs to follow.
