Over the past few weeks HBCU’s have been getting bludgeoned in matchups with Power 4 institutions, sparking conversations is financial juice of these games worth the squeeze of the beatings on a national stage.
Prairie View A&M head coach Tremaine Jackson doesn’t believe HBCUs should have to play Power 4 programs to fund their athletic departments. But instead of complaining about the games already on the schedule, Jackson believes HBCUs need to change the equation by investing in football.
There is a bigger conversation surrounding HBCU football than whether Prairie View A&M should play Baylor.
Prairie View A&M head coach Tremaine Jackson made that clear.
Jackson doesn’t believe HBCUs—or FCS programs operating with similar budgets—should routinely be playing Power 4 opponents.
But that doesn’t mean he believes his players should approach those games looking for an excuse.
In fact, Jackson’s message is almost the opposite.
Attack it.
Prairie View A&M traveled to Waco to face Baylor on Sept. 12, a game that had been scheduled before Jackson took over the program. The Panthers ultimately fell 55-3, but Jackson had already made his position on the matchup clear: He wasn’t interested in teaching his players to complain about circumstances they couldn’t control.
“If that was done at a time where I was here, then I would be the guy that chose to play Baylor,” Jackson said.
That distinction matters.
Jackson wasn’t saying he believes Prairie View should be routinely taking those games.
He was saying that once the game is on the schedule, the Panthers have a responsibility to compete.
“You can complain about the situation you’re in and ‘woe is me’ into it, or you can attack it,” Jackson said.
For Jackson, that mentality extends beyond one football game.
It is a lesson he wants his players to carry with them beyond football.
Jackson Doesn’t Believe HBCUs Should Keep Playing These Games
Jackson’s position on the larger scheduling issue is straightforward.
He does not agree with HBCUs or mid-level-budget FCS programs playing Power 4 opponents simply because those games provide a financial payout.
But he also believes HBCU supporters have to be honest about why those games continue to exist.
“If that’s the way that we think about things over here, I don’t agree—let me say that—I don’t agree that we should play those people,” Jackson said.
His reasoning goes directly to the financial investment surrounding college football.
Jackson argued that HBCU fundraising efforts, alumni giving and fan support don’t currently match the level of financial commitment being made by larger programs.
And he believes that disconnect matters.
“We don’t value college football the same way those people do, it’s evident,” Jackson said. “We value classics and homecoming, and so since that’s all we value, then we should not play those games.”
That’s the uncomfortable part of Jackson’s argument.
The conversation cannot simply be about what Power 4 schools are doing to HBCUs.
It also has to include what HBCUs—and the people who support them—are willing to do for themselves.
Stop Complaining. Start Investing.
Jackson’s message isn’t that HBCUs should accept the financial gap.
It’s that they should change it.
The modern college football landscape has become increasingly dependent on resources, roster construction and financial investment. Recent reporting on HBCU-Power 4 matchups has highlighted that widening divide, with coaches offering different perspectives on whether the financial benefits outweigh the competitive disadvantages.
Jackson’s answer is essentially this:
If HBCUs want to compete differently, they have to invest differently.
That means administrators.
It means alumni.
It means donors.
It means fans.
And it means treating football as something worth financially supporting beyond the traditional emphasis on classics and homecoming.
Jackson isn’t asking his players to wait for the financial landscape to change before competing.
He’s asking the institutions around them to change the landscape.
The $20 Million Roster
That’s where Jackson’s most ambitious comment comes into the conversation.
He doesn’t simply want Prairie View A&M to survive in the current college football environment.
He wants the university to eventually have the resources to build a roster capable of competing with programs that currently possess dramatically greater financial advantages.
“One day, one school is going to make a decision to do the same things that others do and we are going to beat those people,” Jackson said.
And he hopes that school is Prairie View A&M.
“Hopefully it’s Prairie View A&M,” Jackson said. “Hopefully our administration because our administration is out there, they do a lot of great things and so hopefully, man, we are sitting in a situation where we can get a $20 million roster.”
Jackson isn’t predicting when that happens.
He simply believes it can.
“That’s going to happen, I just don’t know when.”
That is perhaps the most important part of his entire argument.
HBCU Football Has a Choice to Make
The debate over HBCUs playing Power 4 programs isn’t going away.
There are legitimate reasons for the games.
The financial payouts can be significant. The exposure can matter. Players get an opportunity to compete against higher-resource programs. And for athletic departments operating with limited budgets, those checks can provide resources that aren’t easy to replace.
But Jackson’s comments force a different question:
What happens if HBCUs decide they don’t want to depend on those checks anymore?
That would require investment.
Real investment.
It would require alumni who don’t simply argue about HBCU football on social media to also financially support it.
It would require administrators to prioritize roster development.
It would require donors to see football as an investment rather than simply another line item.
And it would require HBCU supporters to decide what they actually want their football programs to become.
Jackson has already made his choice as a coach.
He doesn’t want his players approaching difficult circumstances with a “woe is me” mentality.
He wants them to attack.
Now he’s challenging the people outside the locker room to do the same thing.
Because the ultimate answer to the Power 4 financial advantage may not be complaining about the games HBCUs are playing.
It may be building HBCU programs that no longer need to play them.
And for Jackson, that starts with somebody finally being willing to put their money where their mouth is.
