What the Bayou Classic Means

Lemme break it down for you:
There's this biiiig Battle of the Bands every Thanksgiving weekend.
It's called the State Farm Bayou Classic. Publicly it's the annual college football game between the Grambling State University Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars.
In practice it is the largest family reunion in the United States, with upwards of 200,000 visitors to the city to meet, greet, eat, celebrate annually.
You meet up with old classmates, distant relatives, former colleagues and neighbors and more importantly you get reaquainted with dear, old Nola.
The Classic was first held in 1974 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since 1978 the game has been held the final Saturday in November at the Louisiana Superdome. A Waterford crystal trophy is awarded to the winning school.
The game has had State Farm Insurance as its primary sponsor since 1996.
Southern leads the series 17-16, and claims the longest winning streak, 8 games from 1993-2000.
It is the best known game and rivalry in historically black college football and is televised by NBC, which i spoke of in an earlier post. The Bayou Classic is the only NCAA Division I - Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) game to be shown nationally on broadcast television.
Both schools typically forego Division I-AA playoff elegibility to participate in the lucrative Bayou Classic.
Like I said, before the actual football game is just a formality. The most well-known and well-attended is the Battle Of The Bands, where both schools' marching bands (the Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band and the Southern University Marching Band, also known as the Human Jukebox) stage elaborately choreographed performances at halftime and before and following the game.

The Classic was the biggest stage for college football's biggest name at one time, Grambling coach the late Eddie Robinson. He was literally a Tiger, the winningest coach in college football history when he retired. Super Bowl winning quarterback Doug Williams succeeded Robinson as Grambling coach before going to the front office of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he started his NFL career.
The success of the Bayou Classic is a major source of tourism revenue to the city of New Orleans, and has inspired the promotion of numerous other HBCU rivalries as "Classics", often played at neutral sites in distant cities.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, organizers moved the 2005 event from the Superdome to Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, where many of New Orleans' evacuees were living.
The 2006 Bayou Classic returned to the Superdome in New Orleans. This year marks the second year in a row the Classic has returned to its rightful home. Enjoy the game.

It's Bayou Classic Weekend (video)!

You've heard of Mecca in the Middle East?
Well, this weekend is the football equivalent in Louisiana.
In Baton Rouge every year, the Friday after Thanksgiving,, we'll kick it off with LSU beating up on the Razorbacks. It's extra special this year because LSU is No. 1 in the nation, and the Razorbacks have two diesel running backs, especially the Heisman-hyped Darren McFadden. But the other guy, Felix Jones, is just as good and will run for 180 yards on your tail if you're not careful. Then on Saturday we'll enjoy the Southern Jaguars against the Grambling State Tigers in the Bayou Classic in New Orleans. It's the biggest tradition in Louisiana from two of the biggest black schools in the country, as far as brand recognition is concerned. Grambling was coached by the late, great Eddie Robinson for more than half a century. He never had a losing season until the 1990s, when the AD took most of his power, and clout with it. When I think about the Bayou Classic, I think about him, mostly, even though I root for the Jaguars, who have never had a quarterback and offensive line in the same season. Their coach, Pete Richardson, is probably the best coach in black college football, and he's wrapping up his 13th season in Baton Rouge.
The Bayou Classic has been broadcast live on NBC for over 15 years now and is the only black college football game to get that type of exposure.
NBC has had to talk to its advertisers about it though because a black college football game is a lot longer than any other kind of college football game: It's a lot more sloppy, with penalties, a fair share of bad calls by the referees, not to mention that the halftime bands will not be rushed off the field, but will use all 15 minutes of their time. As a matter of fact, the longest broadcast in the history of network television? You guessed it, a Bayou Classic broadcast from the early 1990s (I forget which year). NBC didn't like that too well, and they kind of got on the game's organizers. If you watch the game closely, you can see in the fourth quarter, the refs will let a lot of stuff go just to keep the clock moving. A player could probably slap somebody and they'd let it go, because NBC wants the game to conform to the length of its other college broadcasts. But the problem is, the Bayou Classic is not like any other broadcast. It's a unique institution in Americana.
After the game, people "hit Bourbon Street" It's a tradition. You could "hit Canal" as well, but it's not as fun. Actually you'll have to "hit Canal" before you "hit Bourbon" because Bourbon is off of Canal Street. But, then again, if your hotel is on Bourbon or just off Bourbon then you don't necessarily have to hit Canal, but ... you understand.