MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Southern Heritage Classic will continue on without Jackson State University. Instead, organizers announced The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff will take to the Gridiron in 2023 and 2024 against Tennessee State University at the annual event.
This comes after JSU announced it was backing out of the Classic earlier this year, after then-head coach Deion Sanders called for the school to pull out of the game after more than three-decades. Sanders was just named head football coach for the University of Colorado Boulder.
This marks the first time since the Southern Heritage Classic's inception in 1990 that JSU won't participate and compete against their HBCU counterpart TSU.
The Golden Lions will take on the TSU Tigers Sept. 9, 2023, and Sept. 14, 2024, in Memphis.