Jackson State football is red hot right now, but Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves is cool on helping the school build a new stadium.
The governor was recently asked about the building of Southern Mississippi’s new volleyball facility, which is a part of the salacious Brett Favre welfare scandal. He tried to deny having any insight into knowing details about that facility’s funding and ended up throwing Jackson State in the mix.
“I don’t know all the details as to how all that came about,” Tate Reeves said. “What I do know is that it doesn’t seem like an expense that I would personally support…I don’t even like the state building stadiums with general fund tax dollars. I’m not really excited about Jackson State building a football stadium.”
Coincidentally, earlier this year, the Mississippi legislature killed SB 3154. That bill would have provided a $40 million appropriation in seed money for Jackson State to build a new stadium. JSU currently plays its home football games at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
If Reeves had his way, he says, alumni would fit the bill for building stadiums across the state.
“If you go to most of our universities, what you find is they build their universities through donations from alumni,” Tate continued. “And generally speaking, that’s what we ought to do.”
Meanwhile, Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders recently donated half of his salary to help finish JSU’s football facility.
Like all state HBCUs, JSU has been chronically underfunded. Meanwhile, Southern Mississippi gets a pass as the Good ‘Ole Boy System keeps on ticking for Brett Favre and Co. in the Magnolia State.