Tremaine Jackson: Play Elite Programs

HOUSTON -- Tremaine Jackson didn't schedule any easy games for Prairie View A&M in 2026. Instead, he chose a tough lineup.

The Panthers start their season on August 29 at No. 5 Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas. Kickoff is at 8 p.m., and it's the only college football game on ESPN2 that night.

This is the first time these teams will play each other, and it's also the first Chancellor's Cup game, a new Texas A&M System trophy announced in July. System Chancellor Glenn Hegar will present the cup on the field to the winning school's president, athletic director, and head coach.

Oddly enough, Jackson found out about the trophy while he was traveling.

"I took off to SWAC Media Day on a plane. There was no cup involved. I landed, we was playing for a cup," Jackson told HBCU Legends On SI. "But however we playing for a cup, whatever we playing for, we want it."

This season, Coach Jackson and AD Anton Goff purposefully scheduled strong opponents. A move which could factor well for the Panthers in SWAC competition, and at the end of the regular season.

"When I got here, I stood on the podium and said it is time, and it is now time for us to measure our program against somebody else outside of our conference," Jackson said. "And in order to do that, you have to go play the nation's best. To be an elite FCS program you have to play elite people."

"I don't control anybody else's situation, but it's easy to sit and call yourself elite and you don't play nobody elite and you start thinking you're elite," Jackson said. "You got to go play people, and you can't get any warm-ups to game 1, man. We, we, we had to go get it. We've never gotten a warm-up to game 1."

In Jackson's first season, Prairie View A&M finished 10-4, went 7-1 in SWAC games, won the West Division, beat Jackson State in the SWAC Championship, and lost 40-38 in quadruple overtime to South Carolina State in the Cricket Celebration Bowl. At SWAC Football Media Day, the Panthers were the clear favorite to win the West again, earning 130 points and 19 out of 24 first-place votes.

Traveling to Stephenville is a change for Prairie View A&M. In recent years, they've started the season with games against teams in their own division, with the West Division at stake right away.

"We used to open up with a, with a West game, SWAC game, rival game all in week 1," Jackson said. "It don't get no more pressure than that. This is actually a little bit of relief because at least it's not a Western Division game, right? It is against a top 5 opponent."

Tarleton State started the season ranked No. 5 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 with 1,100 points. They are the highest-ranked team from the United Athletic Conference and have appeared in every poll for the past two years. Last season, the Texans went 12-2 and made it to the FCS quarterfinals in just their second year of Division I postseason eligibility. Prairie View A&M received 25 points in the poll, appearing on two or more ballots.

"Prairie View A&M has never beat a top 5 opponent," Jackson said. "The highest that we've ever beaten is a 6-ranked Grambling in the State Fair Classic, uh, a few years ago. And so we have an opportunity to go and beat somebody ranked in their poll, right? In the other poll. Uh, and so it's, it's a great deal, and it is a big, big game for us."

Not everyone sees the schedule the same way. Jackson said a fan came up to him at SWAC Media Day and asked why the Panthers were scheduling games that might get their players hurt.

"Tarleton State is on our level. 3 of the 4 non-conference games that we're playing, they're all FCS," Jackson said. "Why would I think I'm gonna go get my players broke up by anybody? Saying that you're gonna get your players broken up is saying that we don't have a weight room. It's saying that, that we don't have the right nutrition."

He said the real issue is about investment, not talent.

"What has happened for a long time is people that look like you and I, we've taken the easy way out and not invested on a level," Jackson said. "Well, how about we, we start investing on a level, right? And that's what we've done here at Prairie View A&M. What that level of investment is in comparison, we're gonna find out."

"I don't get caught up in the system things, right? Like, we all in the same system. I don't care about any of that," Jackson said. "I care about -- they got a top 5 program. We're striving to be a top 5 program. We got to go get it, and that's what we plan on doing."

Jackson said their travel plans and expectations will be the same as any other week.

"When we leave Prairie View, Texas, and we head to Stephenville -- we're not going to just measure who we are," Jackson said. "We're going to go start off 1-0."

The schedule remains a tough one for the Panthers. Prairie View A&M plays the 41st Labor Day Classic against Texas Southern on Sept. 6, travels to Baylor on Sept. 12, hosts No. 13 Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 19, and faces Grambling State in the State Fair Classic at the Cotton Bowl on Sept. 26.

Coach Jackson and Prairie View will get their first test in prime time on Aug. 29, with the rest of the FCS watching on ESPN2.

Will the Panthers prove they belong in the elite conversation?

We shall see.