Urban Edge Network will broadcast the 2026 Chicago Football Classic live from Soldier Field, bringing Mississippi Valley State University and Lincoln University (Pa.) to a national audience on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT.
Hardy Pelt, CRO of UEN, told HBCU Legends that UEN’s third-generation app adds contextual advertising while the network prepares technology that will allow fans to purchase merchandise during broadcasts.
“Always exciting for us to be able to showcase the HBCUs to the national audience, definitely to the brands and the holding companies and agencies that are always looking to make sure that their brands that they represent are in front of the number one consumer in the world,” Pelt said. “We’re bringing our ad tech to the broadcast like we do everything else.”
The Chicago Football Classic broadcast represents more than another game on the network’s schedule. UEN plans to bring its advertising technology to the Classic while preparing a new feature that eventually will allow viewers to purchase merchandise directly from its game broadcasts.
“Because of all the things this classic does in the community there in Chicago, what a better place for us to continue to plant our flag in the HBCU sports world,” Pelt said.
How the Chicago Football Classic Deal Came Together
Pelt credited sponsorship and media firm Van Wagner with helping bring the Chicago Football Classic to UEN.
“Shout out to Van Wagner and Julius Grant who approached us about the opportunity and helped us put this together and bring it to our attention,” Pelt said.
Grant is a senior vice president at Van Wagner. The firm has worked with several HBCU properties, including the Toyota HBCU New York Classic, and extended its partnership with the CIAA in 2023. Lincoln competes in the CIAA.
Pelt said the matchup also caught his attention.
“I’ve really been looking from the sidelines at all the new improvements of this Mississippi Valley State football team. I think people are going to be very excited about this team as it comes up,” he said. “And what can you say about Lincoln? Historic institution, historic brand.”
How Urban Edge Network’s New App Targets HBCU Audiences
UEN released its third mobile app ahead of the season. Pelt said the rapid changes in advertising technology drove the rebuild.
“The technology is changing so fast. This is our third app now, just to keep up with the technology,” he said.
The central change is what Pelt calls contextual marketing. He said the platform can attach brand data to audiences across devices rather than serving advertising to viewers on only one screen.
“What makes this so different is what we call contextual marketing, because now we’re able to run the commercials not only for the people who are watching at certain demographic levels, but we’re now able to attach the brands to those data sets no matter where they’re watching, which makes our platform more valuable,” Pelt said.
He offered an example.
“If a brand is looking for an African American that graduated from an HBCU in the last two years, and is married, I now can get that data set right from our viewing audience and then duplicate it all over other platforms at the same time.”
Pelt said the approach “increases our audience 100-fold without necessarily having to grow the base.”
HBCU Legends could not independently verify that figure. Pelt was describing potential advertising reach across platforms rather than an increase in UEN’s actual viewership.
Why UEN Dropped Its Connected TV Apps
One of the more unusual elements of UEN’s strategy is what it decided not to build.
Pelt said the company has moved away from dedicated connected TV applications and instead wants viewers to use their mobile devices to send UEN programming to television screens.
“If you’ll notice, we don’t really have connected TV apps anymore. And at first I think people were concerned,” Pelt said. “The way smart TVs and CTVs, or connected TVs, are now built, they want all your devices connected together. So the brands and the different manufacturers have encouraged us not to have connected TV apps, but to encourage people to use the apps that they already have in the Android Store and the Apple Store to mirror that image onto your television.”
For Chicago Football Classic viewers, that means streaming the game through the UEN Sports app and sending the video to a television through Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Samsung Smart View, other wireless mirroring technology or an HDMI connection.
Keeping the viewer’s phone nearby is part of UEN’s strategy.
“Now I can send the different messages to your phone, your mobile devices, your television while you’re watching,” Pelt said. “You’re gonna see us start to put elements in like chats, live chats.”
UEN Plans Shoppable Broadcasts for HBCU Fans
Pelt also disclosed a feature UEN has not formally announced.
The network plans to incorporate merchandise offers into the L-bar graphic surrounding its game broadcasts. Viewers would be able to scan a code with their phones and purchase merchandise while continuing to watch the game.
“We’re about to launch here shortly with an announcement we’re gonna let you break first, where the merchandise is even now gonna be included on the L-bar advertising so that the person can take their phone while they’re watching on TV, hit the barcode, and right there order whatever they see on the court,” Pelt said.
“Not only can I get the data sets, I can sell what we need to sell right then, right there, without the person even having to get up out of their seat and without missing the game.”
Pelt said the technology could create another revenue opportunity for schools carried by UEN, including Lincoln and Mississippi Valley State.
Print-on-demand fulfillment, he said, could also give fans access to merchandise beyond what schools can physically stock in campus bookstores.
“Those that are watching can still get the same purchase power experience that if they were on campus,” he said. “Hopefully we have more inventory that you can’t carry in the bookstore, but you can carry online for fulfillment.”
“If you’re building it as it’s being ordered, that saves you costs, saves you some time, saves you money, and everything’s drop shipped out at the same time. So it’s another revenue stream.”
Pelt said the development of the app took longer than UEN anticipated due to platform approvals.
“That’s why the app took a little longer than we wanted it to. But we had to get a lot of things approved, licensing and things of that nature through Apple.”
UEN has not announced a launch date for the shoppable feature, and Pelt did not disclose how merchandise revenue would be divided among UEN and participating institutions.
The Scale Behind Urban Edge Network
Asked how many games UEN produced last year, Pelt put the number at 11,215.
The network describes itself as a Black-owned sports media and technology company with rights across HBCU, NAIA, collegiate and professional properties.
“Ain’t nothing wrong with being a Black-owned media company,” Pelt said. “We want to again be a source of pride for our community as well as the communities that we serve.”
UEN has expanded its conference inventory in recent years through agreements with the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Sooner Athletic Conference, and the American Midwest Conference. The company previously consolidated its HBCU+ app into a single UEN platform.
Mississippi Valley State head coach Terrell Buckley talks with the media during the SWAC Football Media Day in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday July 15, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Mississippi Valley State vs. Lincoln
The Chicago Football Classic will feature programs from two NCAA divisions.
Mississippi Valley State competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference at the Division I FCS level. Lincoln competes in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level.
Chicago will be Mississippi Valley State’s third game of the 2026 season. The Delta Devils opened Thursday at Nicholls and travel to Sacramento State on Sept. 5.
Coach Terrell Buckley is in his second season at Mississippi Valley State after the Delta Devils finished 2-10 overall and 1-7 in the SWAC in 2025, closing the season with a 35-31 victory over Florida A&M.
Lincoln is coming off an 0-10 season, going 0-8 in the CIAA under head coach Frank Turner. Lincoln opens at home against West Chester on Sept. 5 before traveling to Chicago.
The programs did not meet in 2025. Mississippi Valley State’s 49-0 victory last October came against Lincoln University of California, an unrelated institution.
Chicago Football Classic Weekend Schedule
Game-day festivities at Soldier Field begin several hours before kickoff.
Tailgating opens at 11 a.m., followed by the High School Battle of the Bands at noon. Mississippi Valley State and Lincoln kick off at 3 p.m. CT.
The weekend also includes the Chicago Football Classic’s HBCU College & Career Fair and BMO Financial Empowerment Summit on Friday, Sept. 11, at Soldier Field.
What the Chicago Football Classic Funds
The Chicago Football Classic was founded in 1997 by Chicago businessmen Everett Rand, Tim Rand and Larry Huggins.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the founders were inspired after attending the 1997 Circle City Classic in Indianapolis and seeing its economic and community impact.
The Chicago Football Classic Scholarship Fund says it has distributed more than $3 million in scholarships since its inception.
For 2026, the fund lists twenty $5,000 awards for new scholars and $250,000 for returning recipients, totaling $350,000.
Mississippi Valley State’s announcement of the matchup credits the Classic with awarding more than $1 million in scholarships to local students since 2020. It also says the college fair and empowerment summit connect more than 4,000 students with representatives from more than 30 HBCUs.
“The Chicago Football Classic has always been about more than what happens on the field,” Classic founder Everett Rand said in the announcement released through Mississippi Valley State. “It’s about opening doors for students, celebrating the legacy and impact of HBCUs, and bringing our community together around education, culture and opportunity.”
The Classic did not stage a game in 2025. Its most recent edition was the 26th annual game on Sept. 21, 2024, when Kentucky State faced Morehouse at Soldier Field.
Mississippi Valley State last appeared in the Chicago Football Classic in 2023, losing 24-21 to Central State.
