Start the hype for 2023 HBCU football broadcasts

The lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us. College graduations are over, and so is the HBCU sports season.

Or is it?

First came the “Much too early football rankings” for next season. Then early preseason polls, followed by players to watch. It’s June! Who cares?

That’s the problem with websites that get paid based on the number of clicks. They can never take a break because if the clicks go down, so do the funds.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it – some of us can breathe.

Then ESPN upset the apple cart. It had to go and release its college bowl and football schedules. And stupid me read it. Now, I’m hooked.

Two of the first three broadcasts will be HBCU matchups, and all three games will showcase FCS teams. This would never happen if the network wasn’t losing viewers from cable cutting.

The Aug. 26 Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta kicks off the HBCU season in a rematch between South Carolina State and Jackson State on ABC no less – a first for the Challenge in its 18-year history. Who can forget, especially Tiger fans, the whupping the Bulldogs put on JSU in the 2021 Cricket Celebration Bowl?

Deion Sanders is gone, but legendary SCSU coach Buddy Pough is still kicking. The MEAC had bragging rights for two straight years (minus 2020 because of the pandemic) until Alabama State defeated Howard last season.

The Denny’s Orange Blossom Classic features rivals Jackson State vs. Florida A&M Sept. 3 on ESPN. Fans then will have barely an hour to breathe after that one before the Boeing Red Tails Classic between fierce rivals Fort Valley State and Tuskegee on ESPNU later that night.

The Cricket Celebration Bowl officially ends the HBCU season on Dec. 16, but fans will have their fill of teams across the ESPN Family of Networks between September and December.

Aug. 31

N.C. A&T at Alabama-Birmingham, ESPN+

Sept. 1

Howard at Eastern Michigan, ESPN+

Sept. 2

South Carolina State at Charlotte, ESPN+

Alabama A&M at Vanderbilt, ESPN+/SECN+

Alcorn State at Southern Miss, ESPN+

Bethune-Cookman at Memphis, ESPN+

Sept. 9

Texas Southern at Toledo, ESPN+

S.C. State at Georgia Tech, ESPN+/ACCN

Morgan State at Akron, ESPN+

Florida A&M at South Florida, ESPN+

Jackson State at Southern, ESPN+

Grambling State at LSU, ESPN+/SECN

Sept. 14

B-CU at Miami, ACCN

Sept. 16

Norfolk State at Temple, ESPN+

JSU at Texas State, ESPN+

Prairie View A&M at SMU, ESPN+

Sept. 21

Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Alabama A&M, ESPNU

Oct. 12

Ft. Valley State at Benedict, ESPNU

Oct. 19

N.C. Central at Morgan State, ESPNU

Oct. 26

S.C. State at NCCU, ESPNU

Nov. 2

Mississippi Valley State at B-CU, ESPNU

Nov. 10

Grambling at UAPB, ESPNU

Nov. 18

B-CU vs. FAMU (Florida Classic), TBD

Dec. 2

SWAC Championship, ESPN2