JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Jackson State football has released its 2026 schedule, headlined by five home games and playing a game in an NFL stadium.
The schedule will also feature four classics.
Head Coach T.C. Taylor’s Tigers will begin the season on the road on Aug. 29 when it renews a rivalry against Tennessee State in the John Merritt Classic in Nashville being played in the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Stadium.
JSU will then host three games, starting with the Hope Labor Day Classic on Sept. 5 against Edward Waters in the first meeting between the two schools, and then hosting Tuskegee the following week in the W.C. Gorden Classic for the second consecutive year.
Conference play officially begins on Sept. 26 when Southern comes to the capital city. Jackson State has won the last seven consecutive meetings and will look to take over as the winningest team in the BoomBox Classic matchup all-time.
Jackson State will then play back-to-back road games beginning with the Gulf Coast Challenge against Alabama A&M at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile on Oct. 3. The Tigers have beaten the Bulldogs in five-straight meetings.
The road swing closes on Oct. 10 against Grambling State, whom Coach Taylor and the Tigers have lost to in the past two seasons.
JSU will come back home to welcome Florida A&M to Veterans Memorial Stadium on Oct. 17, before traveling to Daytona Beach the following week to face Bethune-Cookman on Oct. 24. The Tigers have won four straight against B-CU.
The Tigers’ final home game will be against Mississippi Valley State on November 7 before concluding the regular season with back-to-back road games in what is guaranteed to be high-intensity matchups against Alabama State on Nov. 14 and in the Soul Bowl against Alcorn State on November 21.
JSU has won four of the last five meetings against the Hornets and five of the last six against the Braves.
Jackson State finished the 2025 season narrowly missing out on another Celebration Bowl performance with a 9-3 record (7-1 in SWAC play) while winning the East Division for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Click here for a full breakdown of the schedule.
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