Alabama
Inside The Alabama State, North Carolina Central Selection For The 2024 Orange Blossom Classic
On Tuesday, January 23, news broke that the 2024 Denny’s Orange Blossom Classic (OBC) will feature Alabama State University against North Carolina Central University, adding a new chapter to one of HBCU football’s premier classic games. The decision to add two new teams for the first time since the classic’s revamping in 2021 brings questions, and who better to answer them than Orange Blossom Classic Executive Director Kendra Bulluck-Major?
The Orange Blossom Classic first began in 1933 as Florida A&M (FAMU) battled Howard, but the game went on a 43-year hiatus until its return in 2021 as Jackson State and FAMU renewed the series. The Tigers and Rattlers battled for three straight years in the Week 1 game from 2021-2023, bringing new life to the historic event.
However, when news broke in July of 2023 that FAMU would withdraw from the OBC — rejecting a three-year contract offer with payouts of $450,000 in 2024, $500,000 in 2025, and $525,000 in 2026 — it meant that for the first time in the OBC’s history, the Rattlers would not play in the game. Yet, the news came as no surprise to Bulluck-Major and the classic’s planning and scheduling committee.
“Around mid-March, we started the process of looking for a replacement for [Florida A&M],” said Bulluck-Major. “Typically, schedules are planned out in advance, so we did have to look at potential scheduling conflicts with certain teams.”
Bulluck-Major and crew had their work cut out for them to find a replacement for the storied Florida HBCU, but the OBC has grown as a brand since its 21st-century return. Approximately 36,000 fans, 40,000 fans and 25,000, respectively, have packed the Miami-based Hard Rock Stadium in the first three years of the OBC’s return.
“Going into year four, our team has done a really good job with the overall branding of the Orange Blossom Classic,” she said. “While challenging, we’re in a really good position now to brand the Orange Blossom Classic and also bring in additional HBCUs who can benefit from the platform that we’re able to provide.”
The schools benefiting in 2024 will be Alabama State and North Carolina Central. But why those two schools in particular?
The first thing that jumps out from 2024’s OBC matchup is that for the first time in the game’s modern history a MEAC school will face a SWAC school, unlike the inter-divisional rivalry that the OBC established in Jackson State and FAMU’s previous matchups. However, the battle between a MEAC and SWAC school was always in the plans of the OBC.
The OBC was originally supposed to return in 2020 when FAMU was still in the MEAC, but the game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Rattlers were set to play Division II Albany State in what would’ve been the OBC’s first game since its hiatus, the then-year two of the OBC was going to feature FAMU from the MEAC and Jackson State from the SWAC.
Of course, from there, the timeline blurs as FAMU’s decision to leave the MEAC for the SWAC and the negotiations and eventual announcement of the FAMU-JSU 2021 OBC matchup both took place during 2020’s summer months. It all meant a high-stakes, early-season SWAC East matchup that wasn’t the OBC’s original intention.
“It was originally meant to be a MEAC-SWAC matchup. Being that we were so early in the season, a lot of teams are not always ready to go into conference play so soon,” said Bulluck-Major. “We had no idea at the time that the OBC was going to ultimately end up determining who the SWAC champion would be. When you look at those things, you want to make it competitive, and you want to make it fun, but you don’t want to put so much pressure on the team so early into the season.”
After seeing how the high stakes of an in-conference matchup can shape a team’s season, the OBC saw FAMU’s departure from the classic as a chance to remove pressure from participating teams and as a chance to feature teams from the two FCS HBCU conferences head-to-head.
“We can allow our fan base to see on both sides what a potential MEAC team could look like, as well as what a SWAC team could look like,” said Bulluck-Major.
When it came down to which team from each conference would be picked to play in the OBC, plenty of factors had to be considered, most notably, attendance. Jackson State has led the FCS in attendance for five straight fall seasons, averaging 30,000-plus fans in 2023, and FAMU finished seventh in attendance in 2023 with an average of over 17,000 fans.
That’s where Alabama State comes in.
The Hornets finished as one of four FCS schools to average over 19,000 fans in 2023, appealing to those selecting teams for the OBC. The 2023 Magic City Classic in Birmingham, Alabama — a game Bulluck-Major got the opportunity to attend — drew 69,210 fans, the largest crowd in the FCS since 2016.
Alabama as a state is also one of two that border Florida, further making Alabama State an attractive option for the OBC. In 2023, the Hornets featured 19 players from Florida on its roster — 11 from the south Florida region — and the Hornets brought in four more Florida-hailing players in its 2023 early signing day class. Alabama State can’t replace the in-state presence that FAMU has, but for Bulluck-Major and the OBC, it’s as close an HBCU can get.
“I always jokingly say that, ’If a parent didn’t send their kids to FAMU from Florida, they went either to Tuskegee or Alabama State.’”
She added, “You want a team that travels well, you want to see winning, and you want to see a team that has a fan base where you’re located. We take all of those things into consideration when making those decisions.”
Bulluck-Major’s point on winning is where North Carolina Central comes in with the most value.
2024 will mark the first time in the OBC’s history that a program that has won a Celebration Bowl will play in the classic. North Carolina Central won the 2022 Celebration Bowl to stand as the top FCS HBCU program, giving the OBC all of the incentive to grab the Eagles as one of the game’s participants.
“We had North Carolina Central signed fairly early at the top of the year last year because they were coming off of their win against Jackson State. When the team is winning their fans get excited and they follow that team,” said Bulluck-Major. “With us having our relationship with ESPN, you look at what is appealing from a television standpoint. And the winning team is always appealing.”
While North Carolina Central will be two years removed from its Celebration Bowl win in 2024’s OBC, the Eagles remained one of the top teams in HBCU football last year, earning an at-large selection to the FCS playoffs.
Both North Carolina Central and Alabama State are expected to remain near the top of their conferences and in contention for a Celebration Bowl berth throughout the 2024 season. The two successful programs also have two successful coaches that appealed to the OBC in replacing the personalities of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders and T.C. Taylor from Jackson State and Willie Simmons from FAMU.
Alabama State’s Eddie Robinson Jr. is the second-longest tenured coach in the SWAC and famously — or infamously, depending on who you root for — started the viral conversation and debate about “Who is SWAC?” And North Carolina Central’s Trei Oliver is the only current HBCU coach with a Celebration Bowl title and is always exciting to hear from in the media.
“If you’re going to have to replace a Coach Prime and a Coach Simmons, we hit the nail on the head with our replacements,” said Bulluck-Major. “They’ll both bring a lot of swag, a lot of competitiveness, and a lot of great commentary for us with their interview style and with their style of play.”
The personalities of the coaches only added to the intrigue of the OBC selecting Alabama State and North Carolina Central as its teams in 2024. Fans of the OBC will get a matchup of MEAC and SWAC contenders that aren’t too far away regionally from the Miami-based game.
So, could fans expect to see the Hornets and Eagles matchup in the future or even future MEAC vs. SWAC contests in the Orange Blossom Classic?
“We’re still undecided,” said Bulluck-Major. “It comes down to a lot of the other things that I mentioned.”
Nonetheless, 2024’s contest between Alabama State and North Carolina Central should carry intrigue throughout the offseason until the opening kickoff on Sunday, September 1, 2024.
Alabama
In Alabama Primary Elections, Incumbent Utility Regulators Feel the Squeeze of High Energy Prices – Inside Climate News
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—For some incumbents, politics have turned sour in sweet home Alabama. In the May 26 primary election for two seats on the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, voters rejected one incumbent and sent another to a runoff.
The electoral shakeup comes as Alabamians are increasingly concerned about economic issues, including utility prices. Polling released earlier this year showed that 80 percent of Alabamians cite economic concerns as the top issue state leaders should address.
Now, Alabama politicians have gotten their first sense of voters’ attitudes this election cycle, and the message for incumbents charged with regulating utilities is one of frustration.
Commissioner Jeremy Oden, a Republican who has served on the body since 2012, lost his bid for re-election to Matt Gentry, who currently serves as sheriff of Cullman County, 75 percent to 25 percent.
Gentry will go on to face Democrat James O. Gordon in the November general election.
Another Republican incumbent on the PSC, Chris Beeker, also failed to garner the most votes from primary voters. Jim Zeigler, a perennial candidate who served on the body from 1975 to 1979, earned the most votes with 45 percent to Beeker’s 25. Because no candidate earned the majority of votes, Beeker will face Zeigler in a primary runoff election on June 16. The winner will face Democrat Sheila McNeil in November.
Electricity prices, in particular, have become a hot button issue across the country ahead of this year’s elections, including in Alabama, where power-hungry data center projects have begun to spring up across the state. In neighboring Georgia, utility cost increases and data center development became a major discussion in its own Public Service Commission elections, races that led to major Republican-to-Democrat flips and garnered headlines nationwide.
Read More
In the Wake of Georgia’s Blue Wave, Alabama Changed Its Utility Regulation Elections. This Black Democrat Is Suing.
By Lee Hedgepeth
Fear of a similar outcome in deep red Alabama has left some politicians nervous. During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers were forced to pull a bill that would have ended Public Service Commission elections altogether after significant public outcry.
In its place, the majority GOP legislature passed a major restructuring of the regulatory body that inflates its membership from three to seven members and consolidates significant regulatory power in a newly created secretary of energy to be appointed by the governor. The new law makes it more difficult to initiate a formal rate case, effectively barring such a hearing before 2029 and subsequently requiring the approval of the secretary of energy or five of seven commission members to do so.
Alabamians have good reason for concern over energy prices. An Inside Climate News analysis showed that Alabama Power customers paid the highest average residential bills among the 100 largest investor-owned utilities in the United States. Experts have pointed to the “regulatory capture” of bodies like the Public Service Commission as one reason for those high rates.
All of the successful candidates in this year’s PSC primaries have cited high utility bills as a reason for reform.
In the race for the Place 1 seat, Gentry’s 50-point primary victory over Oden came in the wake of Gentry’s pledge to call for the first formal public rate hearing overseeing Alabama Power’s electricity price increases since 1982. James Gordon, his Democratic opponent, has gone further, calling for regular formal rate hearings, an immediate 25 percent reduction in bills and consideration of a cap on the company’s annual profits.
In the bid for Place 2, Zeigler and Beeker will battle it out in the lead-up to their June runoff. Beeker is relatively new to the commission, having been appointed to the body in 2024 to serve the remaining term of his father, also Chris, a three-term incumbent, who resigned citing health concerns.
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Zeigler’s campaign has focused on pairing opposition to both large data center projects needed to power AI and solar farms for renewable electricity to harness local political passions, though his campaign’s website landing page features an AI-generated image as its background.
“They can ruin your community, consume water and drive your electric bills up. No one in Montgomery is overseeing this,” Zeigler said of data centers in a campaign video.
Beeker has taken a more traditional Alabama politics approach, nationalizing the issues and attacking what he labels “woke” left policies he claims without evidence are driving energy prices up.
Appearing in an ad holding his rifle on a farm, Beeker said he’ll fight for Alabama.
“As your public service commissioner, I’m again standing with President Trump against woke liberal environmentalists who are trying to kill Alabama jobs,” Beeker said.
As commissioner, Beeker has not yet called for a formal rate hearing on Alabama Power’s electricity prices.
McNeil, the Democrat in the race, did not face a primary challenger and has now begun her general election campaign in earnest. Her message? Power bills must come down.
“This is one of the most important positions on the ballot because it affects 1.5 million Alabamians,” McNeil said of the PSC races at a candidate forum earlier this month. “Utility rates are too high. They are some of the highest in the country. Something has got to be done because what has been going on for the last 20 years got us to where we are today.”
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Lee Hedgepeth
Reporter, Alabama
Lee Hedgepeth is Inside Climate News’ Alabama reporter. Raised in Grand Bay, Alabama, a small town on the Gulf Coast, Lee holds master’s degrees in community journalism and political development from the University of Alabama and Tulane University. Lee is the founder of Tread, a newsletter of Southern journalism, and has also worked for news outlets across Alabama, including CBS 42, Alabama Political Reporter and the Anniston Star. His reporting has focused on issues impacting members of marginalized groups, including homelessness, poverty, and the death penalty. His award-winning journalism has appeared in publications across the country and has been cited by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Alabama has expanded income eligibility for the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, known as WIC, meaning more families may qualify.
WIC serves people who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding, as well as parents or guardians of children younger than 5. Applications are handled through local county health departments and WIC clinics.
WIC provides food benefits for each eligible family member, including a monthly cash-value benefit that can be used for fruits and vegetables. Each child receives $26 a month, pregnant and postpartum participants receive $48 a month, and breastfeeding participants receive $52 a month. Other approved foods include whole-grain bread and cereal, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, beans, canned fish and infant foods.
Participants can also receive nutrition education, breastfeeding support and health care referrals. Alabama’s WIC program issues benefits electronically.
| Family Size | Annual Income | Weekly Income |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $40,034 | $770 |
| 3 | $50,542 | $972 |
| 4 | $61,050 | $1,175 |
| 5 | $71,558 | $1,377 |
| 6 | $82,066 | $1,579 |
Under the 2026 federal poverty guidelines, WIC is open to households with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level. Participants also must meet nutrition-risk requirements. Families already receiving Medicaid, SNAP or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families generally meet the income guidelines for WIC, though others may qualify as well.
Each unborn infant counts as one in the family size. For additional household sizes, see the Alabama Department of Public Health’s WIC information page.
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Copyright 2026 WSFA. All rights reserved.
Melissa Fortenberry saw a problem and sought a solution, a solution Alabama football is buying into.
Fortenberry invented HeatSense, a fitness tracker that measures athletes’ individual core body temperature with the “goal of proactively managing heat strain.” In August, Alabama will be Heat Sense’s first customer.
“They are all in,” Fortenberry told The Tuscaloosa News. “They very much want their player health to be at the top of the list.”
With a background in technology, Fortenberry came up with the idea of HeatSense as a fan, watching her three kids play youth sports in from the stands. She became sick, feeling dizzy and nauseous and coming to the conclusion that the pads and turf were hotter for athletes on the field.
Fortenberry conducted her own research and saw more reactive solutions than proactive.
“You can see heat strain forming in people and proactively cool them or keep pushing, where today, you’re flying blind,” Fortenberry said.
Jeff Allen, senior associate athletic director for health and performance and Alabama football’s head athletic trainer, has already been on the forefront of innovation for player safety, introducing the injury tent in 2015 to allow training staff and medical personnel to examine athletes privately on the sideline during games.
When Carson Tinker, a former Alabama and NFL long snapper and Fortenberry’s neighbor, heard about her idea, Allen was the first person Tinker thought of.
“Jeff was like, ‘Man, this sounds super interesting. Keep me in the loop with this,’” Tinker said. “It’s something he felt he knew that he could use. That was over a year ago now. … Now it’s all kind of come together. It’s crazy how it all kind of works out.”
“Once we got Jeff’s attention, he was really intrigued,” Fortenberry said, adding Allen “wants to be on the forefront of making the game better.”
Members of the HeatSense team attended an Alabama practice during its fourth-quarter program in March and put sensors on 10 players.
“I think the feedback they heard from players was validated in what we saw,” Fortenberry said.
Tinker views this not only as a safety tool, but an advantage overall to find a player’s peak body temperature.
“You want to be able to use the heat to your advantage. You want to be able to play your best in all conditions, but nobody knows until it’s too late and you got to get through in the cold tub because you overheated.”
Alabama is just the start for HeatSense, which has the goal of reaching three to five Division I programs this summer.
According to Weather Spark, the average temperature in Tuscaloosa eclipses 90 degrees during Alabama’s fall camp. Fortenberry now has a way for the Crimson Tide to respond.
“People, I think, are afraid of the heat, but you don’t know you can do something about it,” she said. “Now you can.”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter or Instagram @colingaytnews.
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