When the Celebration Bowl was announced almost nine years ago, I scoffed at the notion of abandoning the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for a bowl game that crowned an HBCU national champion.
Stuck in the mindset of competing for national honors, I initially missed the point of the game, which is embarrassing considering I’m an HBCU grad.
This past Saturday, the eighth edition of the Celebration Bowl proved why it was needed, why it will continue to be needed, and how it has become a cultural touchstone for HBCU sports and the community.
Two of our better-known (and promoted) institutions, Florida A&M and Howard, met in what is considered the new Black Mecca, Atlanta, Georgia, to crown this year’s HBCU football champion.
That, as we wrestling fans like to say, will feed generations, and the game lived up to the hype as the Rattlers and Bison played a spirited fourth quarter that ended with Florida A&M giving the Southwestern Athletic Conference its second Celebration Bowl win, 30-26.
There are so many pros to the Celebration Bowl that it would have this column running into the realm of long-form, and we don’t need that, so I’ll share the most important ones, starting with the almighty dollar.
When we were fortunate enough to have Tiffany Greene and Jay “Sky” Walker join us Monday evening on our weekly live show, Tiffany made it clear that the money drove this game and made it more important than the FCS playoffs. Each school gets a million dollars just for playing in the game; of course, with the Celebration Bowl being televised on ABC – not ESPN683, not streaming, TELEVISED ON ABC – the promo that comes with being on free TV is likely worth another million dollars.
As our institutions grapple with the fact we’ve been intentionally underfunded and undercut by local, state, and federal governments, getting some money back and a way to reach new audiences that could donate or support is a win, regardless of how you slice it.
Florida A&M is on the cusp of what could be a dominant run
Also, the actual football game answers the age-old question every year: MEAC or SWAC? Who’s better? The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference has claimed six Celebration Bowl titles (North Carolina A&T has four trophies, while South Carolina State and North Carolina Central have also won), so they have been able to claim supremacy often.
That supremacy is now in jeopardy as Florida A&M, led by a really good head coach in Willie Simmons and an administrative team and alumni/student base that will ride for the Rattlers forever, is ready to return to the days of when the Orange Blossom Classic was FAMU’s own personal playground.
The Rattlers have won at every level in every conference they’ve played in – SIAC, MEAC, and now SWAC. They are a SWAC school, likely always should’ve been, and will now be the team to beat for the foreseeable future.
The Celebration Bowl is here to stay
Last but certainly not least is the social gathering aspect of the game.
Eddie George mentioned wings and liquor in an early season rant about attendance at Tennessee State not being game-focused, but drawing people out is important. You can work on football literacy as you go. Not saying there weren’t many knowledgeable football fans among the over 41,000 that filled Mercedes Benz Stadium – there were tons of them.
Just getting people to the games and making the event attractive to them means they’ll come, spend money, watch some of the game they’ll connect with old friends, make new ones, and go back to their respective corners of the world and spread the word about the Celebration Bowl.
And you had two universities that were perfect for this year’s game. Howard and FAMU have alumni and students from literally all over the United States and beyond – they aren’t the only ones with that distinction, but they’re certainly the ones who wear it with pride and promote their schools based on that.
There will be potential students from New York to Los Angeles and all points in between who will want to be a part of the magic that is HBCU life.
So yes, the Celebration Bowl is here to stay and should be. It makes money, makes HBCUs nationally relevant, and makes for a good time for all involved. This game will continue to grow if the support is there, and with FAMU and Howard treating a national audience to a football game and a cultural lesson, there’s no limit to how great this entire week in the A.T.L. can be.
