NORFOLK, Va. – The final Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) games get underway this weekend with three teams chasing the regular season title and the chance to compete in the Inaugural Celebration Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Celebration Bowl kicks off on Saturday, December 19 at the Georgia Dome. The game is slated for a Noon start and is televised live on ABC.
The MEAC’s tiebreaker process is solely to determine which team will serve as the MEAC representative in the Celebration Bowl against the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s (SWAC) regular season champion. In the event of a tie for the Conference title, all teams included in the tie will share the title and be named Co-Champions. Any MEAC team that does not compete in the Celebration Bowl game is eligible to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division I (FCS) Football Subdivision Championships.
Last year the conference made history by awarding five teams co-champions.
If North Carolina A&T State defeats North Carolina Central, then North Carolina A&T State would be the conference’s outright regular season champion and serve as the MEAC’s representative in the inaugural Celebration Bowl game.
Should North Carolina Central defeat North Carolina A&T State, coupled with a Bethune-Cookman loss to Florida A&M, then North Carolina Central would share the conference title with North Carolina A&T State, however, North Carolina Central would receive the berth to the Celebration Bowl because of its head-to-head victory over N.C. A&T State.
In the event of a three-way tie, featuring Bethune-Cookman, North Carolina A&T State, and North Carolina Central, North Carolina A&T State would tentatively be the conference’s representative in the Celebration Bowl and all three teams would be named Co-Champions. North Carolina Central would be eliminated from the tiebreaker formula as the Eagles did not earn any points in the tiebreaker process with any wins against FBS or FCS teams, compared to Bethune-Cookman’s and North Carolina A&T State’s FCS non-conference victories.
Bethune-Cookman picked up four points in its win over Grambling State (SWAC) and North Carolina A&T State’s earned its four points in the win over Elon (CAA). Remaining tied from their point totals, both teams advanced to the next step of the tiebreaker process that decides the winner based on its Sagarin ranking.
North Carolina A&T State would tentatively seal the Celebration Bowl participation spot based on the latest Sagarin rankings.
As of today, North Carolina A&T State is listed at 137 in the Sagarin ranking and Bethune-Cookman is positioned at 175.
MEAC Tiebreaker:
1. If NCAT wins: (Celebration Bowl: NCAT)
2. If NCCU wins, NCAT loses, BCU loses: (Celebration Bowl: NCCU)
3. IF NCCU wins, NCAT loses, BCU wins: (Celebration Bowl: NCAT*)
*based on today’s Sagarin Ranking
Courtesy: MEAC
Central playing St. Aug really hurt the SOS.
It appears to me because the MEAC and SWAC teams are participating in their respective bowl and classic moneymakers, that
the at large committee doesn’t respect their rights to be in postseason play with other schools. It seems unfair to the HBCU, that
they should have to sacrifice their traditional money makers bowl or
classic to participate in playoffs games that will only limit their payout.