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| (L-R) MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas, SportsCenter Anchor
Jay Harris, SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp, ESPN Events General Manager Pete
Derzis, and 100 Black Men of Atlanta CEO John Grant |
On Wednesday, the MEAC announced its decision to forfeit its
guaranteed berth to the playoffs in favor of a new postseason Celebration Bowl.
The game will pit the MEAC champion versus the champion of the Southwestern
Athletic Conference (SWAC). ESPN Events, the subsidiary of ESPN that owns the MEAC/SWAC
Challenge presented by Disney, also owns the new Celebration Bowl. The
Celebration Bowl will join the MEAC/SWAC Challenge as part of the televised lineup on the ESPN
cable network.
The first Celebration Bowl will take place in the Georgia Dome
in Atlanta on December 19, 2015 season. It will later move into the new stadium
that will be built for the Falcons NFL franchise.
MEAC teams that do not finish #1 in the conference will remain eligible for at-large bids to the FCS playoffs.
Last year, FAMU was on the losing side of a MEAC vote over
the proposal to give up the automatic berth in order to play a MEAC/SWAC
championship bowl.
"Before the FBS instituted the playoff system, everybody was playing for the opportunity to go to postseason bowl games. Now, we're in that mix, as well," Thomas said in a quote published by the Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Va.
According to FOX News, “the MEAC and SWAC had its champions
play each other in the Pelican Bowl in 1972, '74 and '75, but the game folded
because of poor attendance. The bowl was followed by the Heritage Bowl from
1991-99, and it drew stronger attendance but ended after the MEAC preferred to
be represented by its runner-up and instead send its champion to the NCAA
playoffs.”
The FOX News article added that “the Ivy League also doesn’t
compete in the FCS playoffs. Moving forward, the 24-team field is expected to
be comprised of 10 automatic bids and 14 at-large bids among the 10
participating conferences.”