College GameDay Week 9 location: Jackson State University to host ESPN, HBCU matchup with Southern

ESPN's College GameDay looked like they would head to Syracuse to see the upstart Orange, but a fourth quarter comeback by the Clemson Tigers snuffed the perfect season in Upstate New York. Then the Central Florida Knights might have been next on the list, but they got routed at home by ECU.

So it took a couple breaks, but it's always good when the biggest platform in the sport of college football can tell the stories of the non-Power Five level of the game. And that's what will happen this week when the trailers pull up to Jackson State University for a SWAC battle between Deion Sanders Jackson State Tigers and the Southern Jaguars.

JSU is 7-0 this season, 4-0 in the SWAC's East Division as they look to repeat as league champions. Southern is 5-2, 3-1 in the league and in first place in the West. This could be a preview of the SWAC title game, and the winner of that heads to the Celebration Bowl in December which determines what is basically the HBCU champion of college football.

HBCU football is a culture that not only turns out great athletes that end up playing on Sundays in the NFL, but is often woefully underfunded and without enough attention. It's good that college football fans from across the country will get the chance to see what a tailgate looks like at an HBCU.

And the bands will hopefully be out there as well, as Southern's Human Jukebox is one of the great musical institutions in the world.

  
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