HBCU FCS Spring Games Scheduled, Dates Set for Mid-April Action

The HBCU spring football calendar opens April 3 with Florida A&M and runs through April 25, with every game carrying weight that extends far past a standard tune-up. New coaches, portal quarterbacks and open depth charts make this April's scrimmages the first real evidence of what each program will bring to the fall.

Southern University sets the circuit's first major storyline in motion on April 4. Marshall Faulk, the Pro Football Hall of Famer who left Colorado's staff to become the Jaguars' first-year head coach, hosts what he is calling a spring showcase in Baton Rouge. It is his first game leading any program, and the competitive standard is already established. "If any of you think because of your high school film you deserve to start, you're in the wrong place," Faulk told his players at the opening of spring practice. "This spring is all about competition. The best players are going to play."

The April 11 weekend is where the calendar becomes a full conference-spanning event. Nine programs take the field simultaneously across SWAC, MEAC, OVC and CAA territory: Alcorn State, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jackson State, Texas Southern, NC Central, Tennessee State, North Carolina A&T and South Carolina State. NFL and CFL scouts, who regularly time HBCU scouting trips around the spring-game cluster, will have a complete menu of prospects to evaluate on a single Saturday afternoon.

The sharpest position battle among that group belongs to Alabama A&M. Quarterback Bekkem Kritza, a former three-star Penn State signee who threw for more than 5,000 yards and 56 touchdowns in high school before going unused at Penn State in 2025, entered the transfer portal and joined a Bulldogs competition that already features Eric Handley, who completed 132 passes for 1,360 yards and six touchdowns across 11 games last fall, and Quad Brown, who posted 1,060 yards and seven scores in just four appearances. Second-year head coach Sam Shade gets his clearest look yet at who runs the offense before September arrives.

Morgan State takes the field on April 16. Bethune-Cookman follows a night later under the lights at 6 p.m., the only confirmed evening kickoff on the spring calendar and a natural recruiting showcase for prospects willing to travel for a night atmosphere. The April 18 slate sends Grambling State, Howard and Hampton onto the field simultaneously, giving fans in Louisiana and along the East Coast a final look at rosters before fall camp begins.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Norfolk State close the spring schedule on April 25, both kicking off at 2 p.m. as the last Division I HBCU programs to hold public exhibitions before the season opens. That simultaneous noon pairing serves as the calendar's final concentrated window for scouts and recruiting staffs working the HBCU-to-pro pipeline.

The stakes across every date run well beyond depth charts. These spring games serve as recruiting showcases with prospects in the stands, NIL-friendly local events connected to campus communities, and for programs carrying new portal quarterbacks or newly installed coaching staffs, the first chance for fans and evaluators to see how those players function in system reps and situational play-calling. Programs with unresolved battles at quarterback, offensive line and edge will use scrimmage reps to make the depth-chart decisions that shape rosters through August and into opening weekend.

From Baton Rouge to Baltimore, this April's exhibitions are early statements in the chase to Atlanta and beyond.