The HBCU basketball world got quite a shakeup last week when Donte’ Jackson left Grambling State to take over as head coach at Alabama A&M.
The three-time SWAC Coach of The Year recently spoke with the Ruston Leader about his departure from the Louisiana HBCU for its SWAC neighbor.
“They’re doing some things when it comes to the resources they have and what they’re trying to build up. That’s the name of the game now. Kids want to be paid and it’s not as much about the other stuff like it was. The dynamic is changing,” Jackson told the paper. “That’s not to say GSU wasn’t willing to do it.”
When pressed, however, Jackson suggested Grambling State’s stance on NIL, revenue sharing, pay-for-play, etc. were all still unclear.
“It was described to me that, ‘Oh, well we’re doing a study, and we’ll see what we can do,” Jackson said. “But to be honest, I don’t know what it looked like going forward. I never got an exact answer on how that would work. It was up in the air. Like I said, they were doing a study.”
Jackson coached at Grambling State for eight seasons after being hired by Dr. Paul Bryant — the same man who just hired him at Alabama A&M. He did go out of his way to try to quiet any rumors of bad blood between himself and his former boss, GSU AD Treyvean Scott.
“He helped me elevate the program to its highest point ever. I have no problem with him. He’s a good man,” Jackson said. “I felt like we worked well together. It was a tough decision to leave.”