The 2023 HBCU football schedule of Homecoming games is complete.
The great majority of the 47 football-playing HBCUs have officially released their schedules. A few are still working out their final details. Based on HBCU Gameday’s inquiry to the schools, the dates below are solid. Our homecoming schedule by date is listed below. A homecoming schedule by school is here.
Homecoming opponents are set for 46 of the programs. Efforts to reach Langston to determine its opponent were unsuccessful.
What to look for in 2023 Homecomings?
Among the key questions for the 2023 football season in general and the festive homecoming season in particular, is how former Jackson State head coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders’ absence will affect both?
Coach Prime’s effect on the past two seasons has been immeasurable, both in the attention he garnered and the crowds he and his teams drew. In addition to winning back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships for the Tigers of JSU, he shattered FCS and black college attendance records and bettered a number of big-time FBS programs.
It included drawing record crowds of over 50,000 fans to the 2021 (vs. Alabama State) and 2022 (vs. Campbell) JSU homecomings. He and his squad also drew record crowds when they played at others homecomings.
How the Tigers — now under head coach T. C. Taylor — fare at the turnstiles with the irrepressible Sanders out of the picture will indeed be a story to watch in 2023.
2023 Homecoming ‘revenge’ factor
In 2022, Bowie State brought an abrupt end to new head coach Henry Frazier’s four-game Virginia State winning streak with a 41-14 shellacking at the Trojans’ homecoming in Ettrick, Va. on Oct. 8.
Frazier and the Trojans will look for some payback against his former team when they take on the Bulldogs’ at the Oct. 7 homecoming at BSU.
First-year Alabama State head coach Eddie Robinson Jr. took umbrage to the way Coach Prime pooh-poohed the Hornets leading to JSU’s 26-12 win a year ago at ASU’s homecoming. Robinson shook off a postgame “Obama bro-hug” from Sanders while saying he hoped Jackson State would bring his squad in for JSU’s 2023 homecoming.
He got his wish. Sanders won’t be there but the teams will meet at this year’s JSU homecoming on Oct. 14.
Coming off a stunning 31-10 upset of SWAC kingpin Jackson State at Celebration Bowl VI in 2021, MEAC champion SC State and venerable head coach Buddy Pough rode into 2022 on a high. The Bulldogs ended up crashing to earth in a 3-8 campaign. It included a 1-4 MEAC record and 28-14 loss of the road at Howard on Nov. 12 — one of four straight MEAC losses to close out the season.
The 2023 Bulldog revenge tour includes having the Bison in for a Nov. 4 homecoming date.
Tuskegee, the perennial homecoming attendance leader before Jackson State’s two-year run, has Edward Waters in for homecoming on Oct. 14.
October is 2023 HBCU Homecoming month
As usual, October is HBCU homecoming month.
Thirty-nine (39) of the 47 homecoming dates are in the month. October 21 leads the way with 14 homecoming dates. October 14 is next with 13.
Both MEAC champion N. C. Central (vs. Norfolk State) and new Colonial Athletic Association member N. C. A&T with its GHOE — Greatest Homecoming on Earth (vs. Towson) — have homecoming dates on November 4.
HOMECOMINGS BY DATE
(Homecoming host in ALL CAPS)
SEPTEMBER
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 (1)
WEST VIRGINIA STATE vs. Glenville State
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (3)
ALABAMA A&M vs. Tuskegee
ELIZABETH CITY STATE vs. Johnson C. Smith
TEXAS SOUTHERN vs. Lincoln (CA)
OCTOBER
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 (7)
ALABAMA STATE vs. Bethune-Cookman
BLUEFIELD STATE vs. Lincoln (Pa.)
BOWIE STATE vs. Virginia State
EDWARD WATERS vs. Lane
LINCOLN (MO) vs. Northwestern State
MORGAN STATE vs. Stony Brook
SHAW vs. Johnson C. Smith
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14 (13)
ALBANY STATE vs. Allen
BETHUNE-COOKMAN vs. Texas Southern
CENTRAL STATE vs. Savannah State
GRAMBLING STATE vs. Alabama A&M
JACKSON STATE vs. Alabama State
JOHNSON C. SMITH vs. Saint Augustine’s
LINCOLN (PA) vs. Elizabeth City State
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
SOUTHERN vs. Lincoln (Ca.)
TENNESSEE STATE vs. Norfolk State
TUSKEGEE vs. Edward Waters
VIRGINIA STATE vs. Bluefield State
VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY LYNCHBURG vs. Fort Lauderdale
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 (14)
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF vs. Alcorn State
BENEDICT vs. Kentucky State
CLARK ATLANTA vs. Central State
DELAWARE STATE vs. South Carolina State
FAYETTEVILLE STATE vs. Johnson C. Smith
FLORIDA MEMORIAL vs. Webber International
FORT VALLEY STATE vs. Morehouse
HOWARD vs. Norfolk State
LANE vs. Virginia-Lynchburg
LANGSTON vs. ????
LIVINGSTONE vs. Shaw
MILES vs. Allen
SAVANNAH STATE vs. Tuskegee
VIRGINIA UNION vs. Lincoln (Pa.)
WINSTON-SALEM STATE vs. Saint Augustine’s
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 (5)
ALLEN vs. Edward Waters
FLORIDA A&M vs. Prairie View A&M
HAMPTON vs. North Carolina A&T
MOREHOUSE vs. Kentucky State
NORFOLK STATE vs. Morgan State
NOVEMBER
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4 (4)
NORTH CAROLINA A&T vs. Towson
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL vs. Norfolk State
PRAIRIE VIEW A&M vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE vs. Howard