Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) football head coaches Deion Sanders and Willie Simmons teams will be facing off against each other in the Orange Blossom Classic to start the 2022 regular season. Before the matchup, the head coaches agree that the rivalry game should have an increased light shined on the game.
Florida A&M and Jackson State game is scheduled to be played on Sept. 4 on ESPN 2. Sanders and Simmons suggested, this isn’t good enough.
“How do we get to ESPN2 when we had better ratings than Power 5s that played on the same darn day?” Sanders asked in response to the release of ESPN’s fall 2022-23 college football schedule HBCU Sports reported. “ESPN you are better than that and much smarter than that. Check the ratings please.”
Simmons agreed with Sanders, “Deion Sanders and I are in agreement that the Orange Blossom Classic on Sept. 4 should be nationally televised on ESPN. The reigning Buck Buchanan Award winner (FAMU’s Isaiah Land) and the reigning Jerry Rice Award winner (Jackson State’s Shedeur Sanders) going head-to-head! Last year’s game (was) decided by one point.”
In the 2021 Labor Day weekend opener, which ended in a 7-6 victory by Jackson State. The game got around 700,000 viewers on ESPN 2. The ratings were the second-highest rated game of the day only behind Florida State-Notre Dame, on ABC, which drew 7.7 million viewers.
The only other college football game scheduled to be played on the day of the Orange Blossom Classic this upcoming season is a Florida State and LSU scheduled to be on ABC’s primetime slot.
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