Texas Southern, Prairie View put title hopes on Labor Day Classic

Texas Southern Tigers head football coach Cris Dishman was calm and collected as he fielded questions from reporters gathered in his team’s meeting room on a Wednesday morning in August. Dishman, 61, talks like he never raises his voice—methodical yet strident in his speech. It’s the approach of a man who has seen it all in the game of football, like one of the best NFL cornerbacks of a generation in the 1990s.

So, when he was asked about a message written on a nearby dry-erase board that read, “How bad do you want to be a national champion?” His response was measured and to the point. 

“I always thought if you keep manifesting and keep talking about it, it’s going to happen,” Dishman said. “We have the team to do it. Our guys are hungry for it. Coaches are hungry for it. And even our fans are hungry for it.”

Dishman, a two-time All-Pro with the Houston Oilers and now-Washington Commanders during his 13-year NFL career, now has over two decades of coaching experience. Writing the question on the board breeds expectation. Dishman clearly has the vision; now he needs his locker room to see it.

“If we just keep talking about it and keep putting it in those guys’ heads. The more we put it in their head, the more they can do it,” said Dishman. 

Texas Southern showed championship resolve in their season opener by rallying from a 14-point deficit in a 42-30 victory over a well-respected North Carolina Central on Saturday night. In his first game as Tigers quarterback, Cam’Ron McCoy amassed 223 total yards and 3 touchdowns, earning the respect of his coach and new teammates. 

“He was very hungry for this game,” Dishman said of McCoy on Monday’s SWAC coaches call. “Just come in there hungry and be ready to prove himself, not just to everyone else but to himself.”

Since 2015, the Celebration Bowl has acted as the modern “Black national championship” game for Division I Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), matching the champions of the MEAC and SWAC against each other. Last season, Prairie View A&M made its first-ever appearance in the game after winning the school’s first SWAC championship in 16 years. 

The Panthers held a 21-0 lead at one point against MEAC champs South Carolina State, but the game dragged into overtime, and the Bulldogs won 40-38 after four extra periods. 

For Prairie View A&M head coach Tremaine Jackson, the wound is still very fresh. 

“Every morning,” Jackson said to KHOU’s Jason Bristol on Aug. 28. “Every morning when I wake up and brush my teeth, I got it on the mirror, man, about don’t ever let that happen again. Make sure we finish that fight.” 

While Prairie View A&M are HBCU national championship contenders again in 2026, they sit just outside the top 25 rankings in FCS thus far.  

In their season opener, the Panthers fell to No. 5 Tarleton State, 49-30, in a clash between two of Texas’s most successful teams. Tarleton State is in the running to win an FCS national title this season, but Panthers quarterback Tevin Carter was a clear star against them. Carter went 25-of-40 for 309 yards and added 130 yards on the ground on 14 carries for Prairie View A&M.

Jackson knows that winning a national title at Prairie View A&M means earning respect in a state with football powers everywhere.

“I told our team, we got two schedules. We have a national respect schedule and then we have our way to win the national championship,” Jackson said to Bristol. “Playing Tarleton State, playing East Texas A&M, Baylor and Stephen F. Austin, those are important games. For us being in this state, playing those schools that lie in this state too, that we recruit against a lot, that’s very important for our program. And it lets people know that we don’t just play HBCU football; we play FCS football.”

The Tigers and Panthers have played each other 81 times, with the first meeting occurring in 1947, a 13-7 victory for Texas Southern. However, you’d have to go back all the way to the 1950s to identify a time when both schools were competing at the highest levels of their competition. Texas Southern won their only recognized Black national championship in 1952, while Prairie View A&M won back-to-back Black national titles in 1953 and 1954, along with a third one in 1958. 

The rise of both programs, along with the recognition of the Labor Day Classic as a traditional game that’s spanned four decades, means an earned spotlight on the national stage. ESPN will broadcast the game on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. on Sunday, a time traditionally reserved for church services for fans of both programs. 

“I told my pastor, just say a prayer and come on to the stadium,” Jackson said at a pregame Labor Day Classic press conference. “I promise my God going to be in the game. And so we’ll get the announcer to say a prayer too. We’ll sing a gospel song. We’ll get everybody fired up.”

For Dishman, it’s all about exposure for two brands that have rosters full of talent. 

“I’m great with it, the more we can showcase our players is better,” Dishman said. “We don’t get a lot of traffic in our facilities of the scouts coming to see us. Even though we should, because they come to Houston, but they bypass Texas Southern. I’m sure they go to Texas A&M, but they probably bypass Prairie View. If we can any of our guys on TV and show what they can do, I’m for it.” 

The winner of Sunday’s contest will have a fast track to the SWAC’s West Division title, earning a spot in the SWAC title game. Win that, and an HBCU title berth awaits. 

“It’s Celebration Bowl a bust,” Jackson said. “It’s like that.”