Prairie View A&M rewards breakthrough season with Jackson pay raise

Prairie View A&M turned its 2025 breakthrough into a payroll statement, giving Tremaine Jackson and the Panthers’ assistant-coach pool a reported 35% raise after the school’s best season in more than 15 years.

The move matched the results on the field. Jackson led Prairie View to a 23-21 win over Jackson State for the program’s first SWAC championship since 2009, then into its first-ever Celebration Bowl. In Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 13, 2025, the Panthers pushed South Carolina State to the edge before falling 40-38 in four overtimes. South Carolina State finished it with a two-point conversion and a defensive stop in the fourth overtime, but Prairie View had already shown it could hang on the national HBCU stage.

That is what makes the raise more than a simple reward. Prairie View also committed to increasing revenue share for the football program, a sign that the school wants to turn a 10-4 season into a sustained rise rather than a one-year peak. In today’s college football market, that matters. Successful staffs are vulnerable to poaching, and a championship coach can become a target almost as soon as the confetti falls. By boosting Jackson’s contract and the assistants around him, Prairie View is trying to keep the structure that produced the breakthrough intact.

The investment also carries recruiting value. Prairie View can now point to a SWAC title, a Celebration Bowl berth and a close call against the eventual winner in a 10th annual title game that went to four overtimes. For prospects and transfers, that is not just history. It is proof that the Panthers can win the league, reach Atlanta and compete with the best programs in Black college football.

The numbers deepen the case for urgency. Prairie View’s 2025 SWAC title was its second outright conference championship since 1964, which gives Jackson’s first season unusual weight inside the program. That kind of season can be treated as a flash point or as a foundation. Prairie View has chosen the latter, paying more to protect continuity, strengthen staff support and signal that the 2025 run was supposed to start something, not finish it.