The Celebration Bowl is a postseason
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
, first played in the
2015 season, contested between the champions of the
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...
(MEAC) and the
Southwestern Athletic Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...
(SWAC)—the two prominent conferences of
historically black colleges and universities
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
(HBCUs) in
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
. It serves as the ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
''
national championship of black college football. The game is held annually in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
on the third weekend of December, and has been played at the
Georgia Dome
The Georgia Dome was a domed stadium in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta between downtown to the east and Vine City to the west, it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of the Georgia World Congress Center ...
and
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) ...
. It is currently the only active bowl game to feature teams from the
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...
(FCS).
History
The Celebration Bowl is a successor to two previous bowl games between the MEAC and SWAC, the
Pelican Bowl
The Pelican Bowl is a defunct, Louisiana-based NCAA Division II bowl game that was intended to match the overall champions or top-seeded co-champions from the then-new Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the long-established Southwestern A ...
and
Heritage Bowl
The Heritage Bowl was a NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) bowl game held by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The bowl pitted a team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) against a team from the Southw ...
.
Because the Celebration Bowl takes place during the FCS playoff tournament, neither the SWAC nor the MEAC can send their champion to the tournament. At the time the Celebration Bowl was inaugurated, the SWAC's regular season already extended too late into the year for its champion to enter the FCS playoffs, while the MEAC dropped its automatic bid to the FCS playoffs in order to send its champion to the Celebration Bowl.
The game is organized by ESPN Events
ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events ...
, which also runs the MEAC/SWAC Challenge
The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is an annual historically black college (HBCU) football game showcasing a team from each of the two NCAA Division I conferences made up entirely of HBCUs—the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athle ...
, the annual interconference game between the two conferences held over Labor Day
Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...
weekend. The Celebration Bowl was sponsored by the Air Force Reserve
The Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) is a MAJCOM, major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force, with its headquarters at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It is the federal Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the U.S. Air Force, consisting of ...
for three playings: 2015, 2016, and 2018. On December 9, 2020, Cricket Wireless
Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider, owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T ac ...
signed on as title sponsor of the game, formally making it the ''Cricket Celebration Bowl''.
In June 2017, the SWAC announced that it would discontinue the SWAC Championship Game
The SWAC Championship Game, officially the Cricket Wireless SWAC Championship Game, is an American college football game that is held annually on the first Saturday in December by the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) to determine its foot ...
following the 2017 playing, resulting in the SWAC regular season champion automatically qualifying for the Celebration Bowl. However, in June 2018, the SWAC reversed course and continues to hold its championship game, with the winner advancing to the Celebration Bowl.
In 2020, the Celebration Bowl was not played, after the MEAC canceled all fall athletics due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and the SWAC postponed its football season into the spring of 2021.
Game results
MVPs
Two MVPs are selected for each game; one an offensive player, the other a defensive player.
Most appearances
Updated through the December 2022 playing (7 games, 13 total appearances). Wins appear in bold font in the Years column.
Game records
Broadcasting
Television and radio coverage of the bowl has included play-by-play
In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
announcers, color commentator
A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and t ...
s, and sideline reporter
Sideline(s) may refer to:
* Extended side, the geometric line that contains the side of a polygon
* Sidelines, the lines that mark the outer boundaries of a sports field
* Sideline (app), a smartphone app
* ''Sidelines'' (newspaper), the studen ...
s.
Television
Radio
See also
* List of college bowl games
The following is a list of current, defunct, and proposed college football bowl games. Three bowl games are currently part of the College Football Playoff, a selection system that creates bowl matchups involving four of the top-ranked teams in t ...
* African Americans in Atlanta
Black Atlantans are residents of the city Atlanta who are of African American ancestry. Atlanta has long been known as a center of black wealth, higher education, political power and culture; a cradle of the Civil Rights Movement and th ...
*MEAC/SWAC Challenge
The MEAC/SWAC Challenge is an annual historically black college (HBCU) football game showcasing a team from each of the two NCAA Division I conferences made up entirely of HBCUs—the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athle ...
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Atlanta events
College football bowls
Sports competitions in Atlanta
Annual sporting events in the United States
Tourist attractions in Atlanta
2015 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Black college football classics