Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State Renew a Dormant Rivalry for the New Chancellor’s Cup

Prairie View A&M opens defense of its Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship Saturday night with about as tough a season-opening test as exists in the FCS: a trip to Stephenville, Texas, to face a Tarleton State team that went 12-2 a year ago and enters 2026 ranked No. 5 nationally. Kickoff at Tarleton Memorial Stadium is set for 8 p.m. Central, and it is believed to be the latest home kickoff in Tarleton State history. Among this week’s season-opening matchups in the FCS, this is reportedly the only one pairing two teams that each won 10 or more games last season.

The game also introduces the Chancellor’s Cup, a new rivalry trophy between two programs that already share a parent institution. Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State both belong to the Texas A&M University System, and the Cup is billed as a new tradition meant to celebrate competition, school pride and excellence across the system’s universities. Whichever team wins Saturday claims the first one.

What the trophy is not, despite how the matchup has been described in some early previews, is a first-ever meeting. Tarleton State’s own game notes put the actual history in clear terms: this is the third all-time meeting between the schools, and the first in 31 years. The Texans won both previous games, a 70-20 road victory on Nov. 5, 1994, and a 44-6 home win on Sept. 23, 1995, giving Tarleton State a 2-0 series lead that has simply sat untouched for three decades.

Prairie View A&M brings the credentials of a defending champion into the renewed series. The Panthers went 10-4 last season and won the SWAC title under head coach Tremaine Jackson, who is 50-16 overall in his seventh season leading his alma mater. Preseason voters expect Prairie View A&M right back in the mix, picking the Panthers to repeat as SWAC West Division champions this year. A win or loss Saturday will not count in the conference standings, but it will set the tone before the Panthers return home for the Labor Day Classic on Sept. 6.

Tarleton State’s game notes also shed light on how the Panthers plan to line up. Prairie View A&M heads into the opener with an unsettled quarterback race, listing Preston Brown, Kaeden Smith and Tevin Carter all atop the depth chart. Whoever wins the job hands off to running back Chase Bingmon and throws to a receiving group of Braylon Finney, Ja’koby Banks and Rodny Ojo, with Ethan John at tight end and an offensive line anchored by left tackle Calvin McMillian and right tackle Cameron Pascal. On defense, the Panthers project to rotate ends Malik Gucalie and Dorian Gates around tackle Molik Mason up front, with Matthew Moore calling signals at middle linebacker and Eric Zachery and Jalen O’Neal manning the cornerback spots.

Jackson has liked what he has seen through two preseason scrimmages, the second of which doubled as an Alumni Day welcoming former Panthers back to campus. He singled out the tight ends, running backs and defensive line as the position groups that have stood out most in camp. “I’m really, really impressed by our tight end room,” Jackson said. “I think that’s a versatile group of guys. We can create some matchup issues for people there, and those guys know how to make plays on the ball. The running back room is probably as deep as it’s ever been. The D-line room is really deep compared to what we were used to around here.” Penalties remain a point of emphasis as the staff trims a roster that has run more than 100 players deep in camp down to the 75 or 80 who will handle regular duty, but Jackson likes the identity his team has built. “The way that we ball,” he said. “They’ve got to understand we choose hard. We do things the hard way. We’re going to be in-your-face, aggressive. We’re not going to shy away from anybody or anything.” The Alumni Day gathering carried extra weight this year, too: Prairie View A&M is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and alumni on hand included members of the program’s 1962 NAIA national championship team, a tie to more than a century of football history that Jackson has made a point of sharing with his current roster.

Tarleton State, though, is coming off the best season in program history. The Texans went 12-2 and 7-1 in the United Athletic Conference (UAC) in 2025, sharing the conference championship, and advanced to the FCS Playoffs quarterfinals in just their second year of Division I postseason eligibility. That made Tarleton State the first FCS program since 1993 Troy to reach the quarterfinals in its first two years of postseason eligibility. Along the way, the Texans led the entire FCS in scoring offense at 42.4 points per game, set a program record with 594 points on the season, posted a plus-2.14 turnover margin that ranks third-best in FCS history, and forced 39 takeaways on defense, also tops nationally.

Head coach Todd Whitten, entering his 17th season and already the winningest coach in Tarleton State history at 126-59, recently signed a contract extension through 2029. He also brought in a new offensive coordinator, Chris Ross, from Stephen F. Austin, where his offense ranked seventh nationally in FCS scoring last season as the Lumberjacks won the Southland Conference championship. The roster turnover behind that hire was significant, too: Tarleton State signed a 63-man transfer and incoming class this offseason, the largest in program history and rated No. 1 in the FCS by multiple recruiting services.

The Texans also return two Preseason FCS All-Americans in offensive lineman Aidan Moe and return specialist DeAndre Buchannon, a transfer from fellow UAC program West Georgia. Running back Tylan Hines, a Walter Payton Award watch list selection, is back after a Week 1 injury limited him for much of last season. He still closed strong, rushing for 490 yards over Tarleton State’s final four games, including a 175-yard, one-touchdown effort in the win over Austin Peay that clinched the UAC title. Nationally, Tarleton State begins the year with 27 straight appearances in the major FCS preseason polls dating to 2024, one of only seven programs in the country that can say that, and enters the UAC preseason coaches poll tied with Abilene Christian as the league’s co-favorite.