Big Chicken has opened its fourth university location at Jackson State University in Mississippi, landing in the Legacy Food Court through a campus dining partnership with SodexoMAGIC — making it the first HBCU to host the Shaquille O'Neal–founded fast-casual concept. The unit operates Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at 1400 John R. Lynch St.

The Nontraditional Push

The Jackson State opening is part of a deliberate push by Craveworthy Brands — the multi-brand franchisor that carries Big Chicken in its portfolio alongside more than 20 other concepts — into captive-audience venues. Earlier in September, Big Chicken opened inside the John Lewis Student Center at Georgia Institute of Technology as part of Crave Kitchen Georgia Tech, a multi-concept food hall. Big Chicken now counts more than 40 locations system-wide, with dozens more in development across traditional restaurants, college campuses, arenas, airports and cruise ships.

The nontraditional venue strategy mirrors a broader trend in foodservice: branded restaurant concepts increasingly see universities, transit hubs and entertainment venues as lower-risk, high-traffic alternatives to street-side builds. For operators in the convenience and foodservice channel, the competitive signal is clear — chicken sandwich programs with strong brand equity are moving aggressively into captive daypart environments that overlap with c-store traffic patterns. For related context on chicken's dominance in foodservice and nontraditional venue expansion, the format continues to attract investment.

Menu and Daypart Coverage

The Jackson State menu is structured for all-day volume across a student population of more than 6,000. Breakfast runs from chicken-and-biscuit builds to sausage, egg and cheese biscuits with hash browns. The lunch and dinner lineup includes signature sandwiches — The Original, Uncle Jerome's Nashville Hot, The Pit Boss, The Ultimate and the Shaq Attack — alongside crispy tenders, tender plates and "Shaq Snacks" like The Smokehouse and The Hot Shot. Sides cover crinkle-cut fries, onion rings, cheese curds, mac and cheese, coleslaw and salads with fried or grilled chicken. Hand-spun shakes round out the menu in chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and strawberry.

The daypart breadth — breakfast through evening — reflects the campus dining model's need to capture every meal occasion rather than the lunch-and-dinner window that defines most standalone QSR units.

Partnership Structure

SodexoMAGIC, a joint venture between Sodexo and Magic Johnson Enterprises, manages campus dining at Jackson State and brought Big Chicken into the Legacy Food Court. Murat Bora, Regional Vice President of SodexoMAGIC, called the partnership a reflection of the operator's commitment to "innovative dining options" for students. Jackson State President Denise Jones Gregory, Ph.D., framed the opening as part of a broader effort to deliver "a more diverse, modern and engaging dining experience" — and noted the historic distinction as the first HBCU to carry the concept.

Creativeworthy CEO Gregg Majewski tied the brand fit to campus culture: "Jackson State has the kind of energy and school pride that Big Chicken was made for. We're bringing great food and a ton of personality to a campus that has plenty of its own."

For Craveworthy, which operates more than 300 locations across 20-plus concepts in the U.S. and internationally, the campus channel provides a scalable path for unit growth without the real estate friction of traditional restaurant development.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.