At the 2025 Bayou Classic, a Rivalry Built on Shared Roots

In Louisiana, some traditions are big enough to feel like they are stitched into the state’s DNA. The annual Bayou Classic is one of those traditions. The weekend carries a rhythm of its own, the sound of marching bands drifting through open windows, families loading up cars before sunrise, entire neighborhoods choosing sides with a kind of pride that seemed inherited. Southern and Grambling aren’t just teams on a schedule; they’re legacies passed down through generations.

To the people who have lived on both sides of this rivalry, a different picture emerges. What looks like competition from the outside is, to them, something much deeper: family, culture, and connection.

Grambling tight end Covadis “CJ” Knighten grew up watching the Bayou Classic long before he ever suited up for it. As a child, Knighten said the game felt like the Super Bowl of Louisiana. The way the entire state turned its attention to New Orleans showed him how serious football was in this city and in this state. His cousin, Southern wide receiver Damien Knighten, had a similar experience. Before he ever became a Southern athlete, the Classic was simply a chance to watch big time football in a packed stadium with a loud environment everyone wanted to be part of.

Now the two cousins line up in different uniforms.

“CJ is a character, so it is never a dull moment and there are so many memories,” Damien said. He said he never imagined he would face his cousin in one of the biggest games in HBCU football, and explained that friends and family back home cheer for both teams. They may lean towards Southern or Grambling depending on where they went to school, but what they really want is to see the boys they watched grow up shine on that stage.

For both Knightens, there is an extra layer to this year’s game. They dedicate the game to their long-time friend C’Zavian Teasett. Teasett, Grambling’s starting quarterback, transferred from Southern to Grambling and was poised for an emotional matchup in this year’s Classic before suffering a season-ending injury in a game against Jackson State in Las Vegas early this season. Players on both rosters and members of both schools’ communities have continued to express support for Teasett amidst his recovery.

Grambling offensive lineman Quentin Ross also understands how deep the Classic runs. Growing up in Louisiana, he saw it as rivalry, culture, and family all at once, a highly anticipated part of Thanksgiving weekend. Watching the game helped him realize that football was more than a sport. It was a way for two historic programs to come together on a national stage and show off the richness of Louisiana’s culture.

Ross played high school football at Woodlawn in Baton Rouge with quarterback Jeron Lewis, who now plays for Southern. Neither thought they would one day line up on opposite sidelines inside the Superdome. When Ross looks across the field now, seeing a familiar face makes the matchup a little more intense. Competing against someone he knows just adds one more layer of excitement and one more story to tell when he goes back home.

How to watch Southern vs. Grambling in the Bayou Classic: TV, live stream, storylines for Saturday’s game

For many, the strongest symbol of how personal this all is comes from people like Tyrin Vessel, a graduate assistant for Grambling football. He grew up in Baton Rouge with the Bayou Classic circled on the calendar. As a child, it felt like another holiday.

Now he works in the middle of it, and the rivalry runs right through his own family. His mother and sister both graduated from Southern while he graduated from Grambling. On Classic weekend, that split turns the living room into a friendly battleground.

“The rivalry means everything to me. I get to talk a little noise and divide the household,” Vessel remarked. For him, playing or working against people who feel like family is exactly what makes the day special. Once the clock hits zero, the competition fades and they are back to being on the same side.

The bridge is not only through the locker room. It runs through classrooms and administration too.

No one understands the connection better than Dr. Trayvean Scott, Grambling State University’s Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics. Scott is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and went to his first Bayou Classic in 1987. He was a young kid sitting in the nosebleeds of the Superdome, more impressed by the size of the crowd than the details of the game. As he got older, the gravity of what he was watching began to sink in.

Scott’s path led him to Southern University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing, another in management, and a master’s in communications. He spent ten years working there before coming to Grambling in 2021 to lead athletics. His story is proof that the line dividing the two schools is not as clear-cut as a scoreboard might make it seem.

The energy in New Orleans the weekend of the Classic, he said, feels like nothing else in college sports and is a driving factor in what makes it such a special event. The game is a rivalry, but it is also a reunion.

“When Grambling plays, Southern is rooting for Grambling. When Southern plays, Grambling is rooting for Southern,” Scott said, echoing Grambling head coach Mickey Joseph’s sentiment in a pre-Classic press conference. “When we are both out on that field, we are opponents, but it is all love.”

That shared community stretches across offices and generations on Grambling’s campus. Dean Carolyn Hester, who leads the School of Social Work, grew up in North Louisiana, not far from Grambling. As a teenager she spent summers on Grambling’s campus in enrichment programs and summer school. Later, when it was time to choose a college, she attended Southern for her undergraduate degree, then went on to earn advanced degrees from Southern, the University of Kansas, and Jackson State.

Hester has lived the Classic from multiple angles. To her, the game feels less like a battle and more like a holiday. She compares it to Christmas Day, when the whole family gathers, someone pulls out a football, and sides are picked just for fun. One side might pick Southern, others may choose Grambling, but everyone is still related. Even when people are not connected by blood, she described an “invisible connection” between those who went to the two schools. For her, the relationship between the schools is part of the foundation of the HBCU community in Louisiana.

Dean Adrienne C. Webber, who leads Grambling’s Digital Library, also comes from that bridge between blue and gold and black and gold. Webber is from Baton Rouge and is a third generation Southern University graduate. Her roots with Southern run deep, but in 2019 she made the move to Grambling to take on her current role. Webber describes the Bayou Classic as a stage that shows the full range of what HBCUs are about. It is football, but it is also scholarship, creativity, and style.

Derrick Warren, the dean of the College of Business at Grambling State, also attended Southern University as an undergraduate, starting as an engineering major before switching to computer science. He marched with the Human Jukebox, joined Kappa Kappa Psi, pledged Alpha Phi Alpha, served as junior class president, then student government president. He also met his wife of now forty years while attending Southern University.

Warren’s life has been shaped by the opportunities he found at Southern, yet his work at Grambling is about building new pathways for the next wave of students. His journey reflects what many in this story share: rather than putting people into boxes, the Grambling-Southern connection sends them back and forth across a bridge that keeps getting stronger.

Taken together, these stories reveal a Bayou Classic that is bigger than a scoreboard. Players who once shared rides to youth practice now meet at the fifty-yard line in New Orleans. Families wear different colors in the stands but ride home in the same cars. A Baton Rouge kid who grew up in the nosebleeds now runs Grambling’s athletic department after a decade at Southern. Deans and directors who once walked the Southern University grounds now work in Grambling’s classrooms and libraries.

From the outside, it is easy to call Southern versus Grambling a rivalry. To the people who have lived it from both sides, it looks more like a mirror. Two schools. Two traditions. One extended family, meeting once a year under the lights to show the world what Louisiana HBCU culture really is.