The Eddie Robinson Classic was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

"kickoff" game played in late August from 1997 through 2002 at various sites. The game was named after legendary

Grambling Grambling State University (GSU, Grambling, or Grambling State) is a public historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana, United States. Grambling State is home of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum and is listed on the Louisiana African A ...

coach Eddie Robinson. Until 2002, the NCAA only allowed for teams to play a 12-game regular season schedule if the first game were a licensed Classic such as the Eddie Robinson Classic, the Pigskin Classic, or the Kickoff Classic. In 2002 the NCAA ended the allowance of an extra 12th game, thus effectively ending the Classics. Kickoff games would later see a revival in 2008, when the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game was organized as a neutral-site game held in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, followed by the Cowboys Classic in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

in 2009.

Game results

Rankings from AP Poll prior to game.

References

{{College football kickoff games College football kickoff games Recurring sporting events established in 1997 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2002