Prairie View A&M’s History on Over-the-Air Television

Prairie View A&M's SWAC Championship is one of the greatest stories of the college football postseason. The Panthers won their first SWAC title since 2009 and will play in their first bowl since 1964. Prairie View A&M will also make its first appearance on broadcast television aside from the HBCUGo package in four decades. The grand stage of the Celebration Bowl is a stark contrast to the circumstances of the Panthers’ other broadcast TV appearances, the result of technicalities and, at one point, the root of controversy.

Prairie View A&M made its first appearance on broadcast television in 1976. ABC aired the Panthers’ November 13 matchup with Alcorn State on four affiliates: Houston, TX, Baton Rouge, LA, Greenville, MS, and Jackson, MS. The game aired alongside a diverse regional slate that included West Virginia-Pitt, Harvard-Yale, Clemson-Maryland, BYU-New Mexico, and Notre Dame-Alabama. Prairie View A&M and Alcorn State’s appearance bumped the highly coveted Notre Dame-Alabama game in the four aforementioned markets and caused significant uproar.

The conflict led to the Greenwood and Jackson, MS stations receiving the Notre Dame-Alabama game on tape delay in the after-dark time slot of 10:30 PM to create a rare-for-the-time TV triple-header. Controversy aside, Prairie View A&M made the most of its appearance on ABC. The Panthers upset #2 Alcorn State 14-6, holding the Braves to just 140 yards of offense. While Prairie View A&M only gained 132 yards, it benefited from a botched punt snap for one of its touchdowns.

The following year, Prairie View A&M opened the season on the NAIA’s short-lived syndicated TV package. Over 30 non-ABC stations across the country saw the Panthers take on East Texas State (now A&M) at the Cotton Bowl to open the 1977 season. Unfortunately, the Panthers lost 38-10 after the Lions outgained them 304-210.

Six years later, a technicality forced Prairie View A&M and Alcorn State onto the broadcast TV airwaves again. An obscure provision in the NCAA’s TV contract with ABC and CBS forced the networks to both feature 82 different schools over two years. CBS aired the Prairie View A&M-Alcorn State game to its Houston, Baton Rouge, Greenville, MS, and Jackson, MS affiliates, while the rest of the country received a matchup of 5-3-1 teams with Rose Bowl implications in UCLA-Arizona.

Unlike the 1976 game, 5-3 Alcorn State dominated 0-9 Prairie View A&M in a 38-6 win. The Panthers had no answers for Alcorn State running back Quinton Jones, who ran for 157 yards.

Prairie View A&M has an intriguing history with broadcast networks and the Celebration Bowl adds to it. This time, the Panthers will take center stage rather than be a regional footnote or quota filler.