The Celebration Bowl, the historically Black college and university national-title-claim game, reconvenes today in Atlanta after a one year pandemic pause, two years of waiting and three jarring conference reconfigurations. It looks different and maybe even misshapen, as does all college football from time to realigned time. Does it retain its churning meaning?
Two key pieces of evidence shout the following: Yes.
The game just signed a new six-year contract extension with ESPN, and it has just gone and sold out Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a first for this seven-year-old, six-edition-old event. Might it last a hundred years, as wise souls projected back in 2019 when life was sort of normal?
“Man, I sure hope so,” retired coach Rod Broadway, who won it twice with North Carolina A&T, said by phone from North Carolina, “because it’s such a beautiful event.” He predicted it long could benefit from one aspect: “And I think the goal and the direction that it’s taken, it’s not just a bowl game; it’s a social event.”
Both SWAC Champs Jackson State (11-1) and MEAC Champs South Carolina State (6-5) will be making their first Celebration Bowl appearances.
Conference realignment
In 2017, year No. 3 of the Celebration Bowl, the MEAC sent a champ from an 11-team conference (North Carolina A&T), while the SWAC sent a champ from a 10-team conference (Grambling). Since then, five teams have left the MEAC, two of those for the SWAC, and two to the Big South.
College football is an eccentric business in which every team must adapt, and so the 2021 Celebration Bowl is no different.
“I’ve been trying to get to this thing for about 10 years now,” said South Carolina State coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough, now entering his 20th year as the Bulldog’s head coach, joked at the bowl intro news conference.
During its first five years attendance at the Celebration Bowl tracked normal bowl attendance — 35,528, 31,096, 25,873, 31,672 and 32,958 — as most post-season bowl games that rely heavily on TV packages. This year’s sellout for the game has outdone the games founders expectations.
Additionally, the game’s $1 million payout will be a nice shot in the arm for each participating schools athletic budgets.