By ERIC STIRGUS

A week before the big game, John T. Grant Jr. sat in his office and spoke with the exuberance of a football coach.

Grant, CEO of 100 Black Men of Atlanta, was thinking big.

On Saturday, the organization will mark a milestone — the 20th anniversary of the Bank of America Atlanta Football Classic — between Florida A&M and Tennessee State universities.

Instead of taking a victory lap, Grant sat in his office and made a bold prediction. In 15 years, the Classic will be one of college football’s biggest sports events.

“Nothing happens unless people have what some would call foolish dreams,” Grant said in an interview. “But more than anything, have the desire and the will and the ambition to pursue it.”

Grant said 100 Black Men hired a consultant to look at how the Classic can draw more revenue for the two schools and its scholarship fund, Project Success. He wouldn’t divulge much about the group’s strategy.

The long-term vision will require some work. Major college football games, like the Sugar Bowl, pay the conferences of each school about $17 million. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl paid Auburn and Clemson universities a combined $5.83 million at the Georgia Dome in December. Grant says the participating schools have shared about $9.1 million since 1996.

David M. Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Sports Business Institute, said Classic organizers should avoid benchmarking themselves against other bowl games. Instead, he said organizers of these games should market what makes them successful.

“They must continue to build their brand by differentiating themselves from other games and events, stressing the intrinsic value and importance of the games, as well as the players’ ability to participate in them,” Carter said.

The Classic, Grant stressed, is different. Its goal is to raise scholarship money for aspiring college students. About $4.3 million has gone to Project Success since 1996, according to Grant.

The growth of classic contests is critical to the financial survival of HBCU football programs, say those involved. This year, there will be 45 “classic” contests between HBCUs. Nearly half of them will be played at neutral sites, such as Saturday’s game at the Georgia Dome. The games draw bigger crowds, more sponsors and thus, more money. Last year’s game at the Dome drew nearly 57,000 fans.

One Florida A&M official said the Classic is responsible for about one-quarter of the school’s football revenue. The Tallahassee-based school has a football stadium that seats 25,000. Florida State University, also located in Tallahassee, has a stadium that seats 82,300.

“Without these games, it would be awfully difficult to meet our budget,” said Alvin Hollins, Florida A&M’s assistant athletic director.

The Atlanta Sports Council estimates the game and other weekend activities associated with the contest generate about $30 million for Georgia’s economy. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl typically generates about the same amount of money, council officials said in a 2006 interview. Council officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ursula Staten, 44, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida A&M, said she plans to drive from Tallahassee to Atlanta on Friday for the Classic. Staten said she’s come here for the Classic for the last 17 years, even though she’s not a football fan.

The Classic, Staten explained, is a weekend to catch up with family, reunite with friends she hasn’t seen in years and spend time in a city she likes.

“Sometimes, I don’t make it to my seat,” Staten said.

Grant confessed he didn’t imagine the Classic’s growth. In fact, there were questions 100 Black Men could pull off putting the game together in 1989. Grant, then an account executive at Airborne Express, joined others with 100 Black Men in what amounted to a month-long all-nighter to work on last-minute details, such as finalizing contracts to get the two teams in Atlanta. About 40,000 fans witnessed the first game, then called the Ebony Classic, at Georgia Tech’s football field.

The game now has 15 sponsors, which include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This year, for the first time, the contest will be broadcast live on the Versus Network.

Grant wouldn’t say how much money the Classic will get from Versus, nor how much money 100 Black Men collects from the contest. Tax records show 100 Black Men of Atlanta raised about $3.6 million last year from special events, which included the Classic.

Tennessee State is playing two classic contests away from their hometown, Nashville, this year. They say about 25 percent of the school’s football revenue comes from these games.

Wallace Dooley, the university’s associate athletic director, credits the classics with bringing in enough money to maintain longtime rivalries instead of playing big-time college programs and getting clobbered. The classics, with their big crowds and occasional television exposure, are also a recruiting tool, Dooley says. Earlier this year, the school’s star defensive back, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, was a first-round NFL draft pick.

“It throws away the myth about HBCUs that [players] will not be seen by the NFL,” Dooley said.

Now, if Tennessee State can put one in the win column. Florida A&M has won the last six years.

Dooley insists they’ll win this year.

“[Tennessee State is] probably overdue,” said Hollins, of Florida A&M. “We’ve probably beaten them every way known to man.”