Sport | American football |
---|---|
First meeting | 11-11-1932 Southern, 20–0 |
Latest meeting | 11-26-2016 Grambling State, 52–30 |
Next meeting | 11-25-2017 |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 68 |
All-time series | Southern, 36–32 |
Largest victory | Southern, 64–6 (1935) |
Longest win streak | Grambling State, 9 (1970–1978) |
Current win streak | Grambling State, 2 (since 2015) |
The Bayou Classic is the annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars, first held under that name in 1974 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, although the series itself actually began in 1932. Since 1990 the game has been held the final Saturday in November (i.e., the Saturday after Thanksgiving) at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. A trophy is awarded to the winning school. The game had State Farm Insurance as its title sponsor from 1996 to 2011. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, organizers moved the 2005 event from the Superdome to Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, where many of New Orleans' evacuees were living. This was the only time that the Bayou Classic was held outside of Louisiana. The 2006 Bayou Classic returned to the Superdome.
It is the best known annual game and rivalry in historically black college or university (HBCU) football and was nationally televised in the U.S. by NBC from 1991 to 2014. Since 2015 it has aired on the NBC Sports Network. The Bayou Classic was the only NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) game to be shown regularly on broadcast television. Fans have been known to refer to it as the "Black Super Bowl", although that name is not used in any official capacity by either school due to the National Football League's restrictions on the use of the "Super Bowl" name. Both schools typically forgo FCS playoff eligibility to participate in the Bayou Classic. The game is one of two black college football classics to be associated with Thanksgiving weekend; the other is the older Turkey Day Classic, which was formerly held two days prior on Thanksgiving itself.