Even as Grambling inches closer to shifting its season-opening date with Alcorn State in order to participate in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge, proposed opponent South Carolina State has its own struggles.
Though the Sept. 5. date against Alcorn has not been officially moved, sports information personnel at the Mississippi school have told reporters that Grambling isn’t part of next season’s football schedule.
Meanwhile, South Carolina State — like Grambling, the champion of its conference — is trying to push back a date against Benedict, a regional HBCU rival that is apparently reluctant to switch.
Benedict is traveling to Orangeburg this year, and officials were reportedly hoping to build interest in this recently revived series for a 2010 date back at their newly renovated stadium.
South Carolina State has an open date later in the year, but that isn’t preferable because it falls on the week before the team begins Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play. There’s some talk that canceling the game could lead to court action by Benedict.
The matchup is certainly intriguing: Grambling and South Carolina State battled until the very end for the Sheridan Broadcasting Network’s mythical black college national title in 2008. GSU only moved to the top of the SBN poll when both the Bulldogs and Alabama-based HBCU Tuskegee dropped games the week before its appearance in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game.
And unlike Grambling’s last appearance in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge, back in 2006, both teams are returning the bulk of their stars. South Carolina State only loses its starting center, tight end and a couple of linemen — but the Bulldogs rotated eight up front last season, so there is experience across that unit.
Importantly, running back Will Ford, the MEAC’s offensive player of the year and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, is back. He rushed for 1,499 yards and 13 touchdowns to power the Bulldogs to the league crown and a spot in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
Record-smashing Grambling quarterback Bruce Eugene, also a Payton Award finalist, had graduated by the time his former team played Hampton to overtime before falling at Legion Field three seasons ago.
The inaugural Challenge in 2005 featured South Carolina State vs. SWAC representative Alabama State, and the Bulldogs won 27-14.
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