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What is the Celebration Bowl? History, results of HBCU football national championship game
On the same day that Army and Navy face off in their annual rivalry game and the Heisman Trophy is handed out, there’s another huge event on the college football calendar.
One of the biggest games annually at the FCS level will take place Saturday when Jackson State and South Carolina State face off in the Celebration Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Tigers have pieced together a stellar 2024 season under coach T.C. Taylor, who took over the reins of the program after Deion Sanders left for Colorado in December 2022. Jackson State is 11-2, with one of its losses coming against an FBS opponent (Louisiana-Monroe). Behind Irv Mulligan, one of the top running backs at the FCS level, the Tigers have rolled in recent weeks, averaging 39.7 points per game during their nine-game win streak to end the regular season.
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The Bulldogs, meanwhile, enter the matchup with a 9-2 record, with one of those losses, like Jackson State, coming to an FBS program (in their case, Georgia Southern). Following a 1-2 start, South Carolina State and first-year head coach Chennis Berry rattled off eight consecutive victories, six of which were decided by at least 20 points. Bulldogs players accounted for 12 of the 27 offensive and defensive inclusions on the all-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference first team.
This weekend’s game is a rematch of the 2021 Celebration Bowl, which South Carolina State won in a 31-10 blowout over Jackson State in Sanders’ second season with the program.
Heading into the matchup, here’s a closer look at the Celebration Bowl, including its history, past results and how to watch:
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What is the Celebration Bowl?
The Celebration Bowl is an annual game played between the champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), two FCS conferences that are composed entirely of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
This year, Jackson State is the SWAC’s representative, while South Carolina State is the MEAC champion.
The game — which has a stated mission to “celebrate the heritage, legacy, pageantry and tradition” of HBCUs — is considered the de facto national championship of Black college football.
With the exception of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Celebration Bowl has been played every year since its inception in 2015, with every game taking place in Atlanta. It was first announced in March 2015 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, a short walk from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The game, which is organized by ESPN Events, is a successor to previous events that crowned the Black college national champion.
From 1991-99, the Heritage Bowl also pitted teams from the SWAC and MEAC against one another, though it rarely featured the champions of both conferences. The final seven of nine Heritage Bowls were played in Atlanta, though Hampton’s 24-3 victory against Southern in December 1999 would mark the last time the game was staged.
Prior to that, there was the Pelican Bowl, which was held three times in the 1970s, and the Orange Blossom Classic, which would match up Florida A&M against another top HBCU program at the end of the season, with the winner frequently being deemed the Black national champion. The Orange Blossom Classic returned in 2021, though it’s now held at the beginning of the season.
Due to the Celebration Bowl’s customary date in mid-December, neither the SWAC nor the MEAC can send its champion to the FCS playoffs, which typically begin in late November.
While the Celebration Bowl participants don’t get the chance to compete for a national title, they get the opportunity to play in one of the biggest games in their sport. The game is wildly popular, with each of the past three Celebration Bowls bringing in crowds of at least 40,000, including last season’s announced attendance of 41,108 for Florida A&M’s victory against Howard.
HBCU football has a rich tradition of elite teams and players. Though the integration of football programs in the south, particularly in the SEC, deprived HBCUs of getting some of the most talented players from their home regions in recent decades, a total of 27 Pro Football Hall of Famers played in the SWAC or MEAC, a group that includes Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State), Walter Payton (Jackson State), Michael Strahan (Texas Southern), Shannon Sharpe (Savannah State), Deacon Jones (South Carolina State and Mississippi Valley State), Harry Carson (South Carolina State), John Stallworth (Alabama A&M) and Art Shell (Maryland Eastern Shore).
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Celebration Bowl winners
The MEAC champion has won six of the eight Celebration Bowls. North Carolina A&T has been the most frequent winner of the game, with four victories in four appearances.
Here’s a look at past Celebration Bowl results, going back to the first game in 2015:
2015: North Carolina A&T 41, Alcorn State 34
2016: Grambling State 10, North Carolina Central 9
2017: North Carolina A&T 21, Grambling State 14
2018: North Carolina A&T 24, Alcorn State 22
2019: North Carolina A&T 64, Alcorn State 44
2021: South Carolina State 31, Jackson State 10
2022: North Carolina Central 41, Jackson State 34
2023: Florida A&M 30, Howard 26
What channel is the Celebration Bowl on today?
The 2024 Celebration Bowl between South Carolina State and Jackson State will air on ABC. Tiffany Greene (play-by-play) and Jay Walker (analyst) will call the game while Quint Kessenich will serve as the sideline reporter.
Streaming options for the game include the ESPN App, ESPN+ — ESPN’s subscription streaming platform — and Fubo.
Watch the Celebration Bowl live with Fubo
Celebration Bowl time today
Date: Saturday, December 14
Start time: Noon ET
The 2024 Celebration Bowl is scheduled to kick off at noon ET on Saturday, Dec. 14 from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is the Celebration Bowl? History, results of HBCU championship
