With the NCAA experiencing Power 5 movement and expanding the Football Bowl Subdivision playoffs, many HBCU football stakeholders have wondered when the MEAC and SWAC would create their own playoff series.
According to Celebration Bowl executive director John T. Grant Jr., that is unlikely to happen anytime soon unless some serious shifts happen.
“A playoff would require some realignment of games to make room on the front end,” Grant told HBCU Nightly earlier this week. “The second part of that is the time of the Celebration Bowl. It would have to be moved to later on in bowl season, which is highly unlikely because of the availability of television windows.”
— HBCU Nightly (@HBCUNightly) August 10, 2023
As it currently stands, the Cricket Celebration Bowl is the official first game of each bowl season, complete with a national TV time slot on ABC.
This past December, the NCAA announced an FBS playoff expansion from four teams to 12 for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, with a 16-team playoff still on the table in the future.
“There will be bowls that will be squeezed because of the playoff expansion,” Grant says.
With that in mind, he also explained that the current scheduling benefits the winners of the MEAC and SWAC and would take a tradition-breaking move for a Black College Football playoff to occur.
“For a playoff to happen, that would require some monumental shifts,” Grant said. “It would require some reconfiguration on the SWAC side, which is likely not going to happen. Grambling and Southern would have to give up the Bayou Classic on Thanksgiving weekend, and the SWAC already has their playoff with the championship game.”
