Atlanta’s new bowl game promises a ‘Celebration’

Atlanta is getting a new college football bowl game. The Celebration Bowl will debut in December.

The post-season game will match the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference, two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) leagues.

The leagues have a six-year agreement to play the bowl here: the first two years in the Georgia Dome and the next four in the new Falcons stadium that is scheduled to open in 2017. Each league will receive about $1 million annually. ESPN will televise the games nationally on one of its networks.

The inaugural Celebration Bowl is scheduled for Dec. 19.

“This is a great opportunity for our schools and student-athletes to compete on a national stage and showcase the talent that exists within HBCUs,” said Duer Sharp, commissioner of the SWAC.

The bowl was announced Wednesday during an event at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.

Sharp and MEAC commissioner Dennis Thomas said the concept of a bowl game had been discussed by their conferences for years — dating back to 2005, Thomas said — before an agreement was reached recently.

Both leagues play football at the FCS (formerly Division I-AA level), and a difficulty in putting together the bowl had been the MEAC’s reluctance to relinquish its champion’s automatic berth in the FCS playoffs.

“That was a concern for the MEAC, the presidents and the football coaches,” Thomas said. “Finally they saw enough value in the postseason bowl game, because that’s what most football teams strive for.”

Starting this year, the MEAC champion won’t be eligible for the FCS playoffs because it’ll be committed to the Celebration Bowl instead.

But while the MEAC will give up its automatic-qualifier berth in the playoffs, MEAC teams other than the conference champ could be considered for an at-large berth, Thomas noted.

The SWAC hasn’t participated in the FCS playoffs for years, instead playing a conference championship game. The SWAC’s lack of connection to the playoffs made creating the bowl “an easier decision for us than it was for the MEAC,” Sharp said.

But in the end, both conferences decided the benefits of the bowl — financial and otherwise — were too great to pass up.

“In today’s world, particularly sports world, finances are always important,” Thomas said.

Asked to confirm that the game will generate $1 million per year for each conference, Sharp said: “Around that, yes. … It’s a good payout, very good.” It will be shared among the leagues’ members.

Football teams in the SWAC are: Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Alcorn State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling State, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, Southern, and Texas Southern.

Teams in the MEAC are: Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Delaware State, Hampton, Howard, Morgan State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, Norfolk State, Savannah State and South Carolina State.

The bowl will be owned and operated by ESPN Events, a subsidiary of ESPN that also owns 11 other bowl games.

Pete Derzis, senior vice president of ESPN Events, said Atlanta is the “right place” for the game, noting that the city “sits geographically between the two conferences and … the member institutions have some of their largest alumni bases right here.”

The organization “100 Black Men of Atlanta” will collaborate with ESPN, the conferences, the Georgia Dome and the Falcons on the event.

“It’s going to be a celebration of HBCU football, HBCU culture and all the opportunities that HBCUs provide their alumni and their students,” Derzis said.

The conferences see the game as a valuable marketing platform.