A trip to the Celebration Bowl means much more to North Carolina Central and Grambling State than proving they are at the top of their respective conferences.
When the coaches of each team met Thursday to talk about participating in this contest that pits the best of the MEAC and SWAC against each other, both Broderick Fobbs of the No. 14 Grambling Tigers (10-1, 9-0 SWAC) and Jerry Mack of the No. 18 North Carolina Central Eagles (9-2, 8-0 MEAC) made it clear that playing in a football game was just a piece of a much larger pie that came with a berth in the Celebration Bowl.
“Not only from a football program accomplishing some of our goals, from a university standpoint of having a chance to appeal to more students across the country and then also from a community standpoint,” Mack said. “When the university is doing well, that means businesses are doing well, that means the whole city is probably on a high.”
As the opener to the college football bowl season, the Celebration Bowl naturally gets a bit of a spotlight shone on it. Add in the partnership with ESPN and the game’s broadcast on ABC and now the schools and their conferences are in a situation where they are receiving more exposure than they had all season.
John Grant, the executive director of the Celebration Bowl, said this yearly matchup between two of the best HBCUs in college football gives these programs and their conferences a chance to be viewed on a national stage that they normally would never get. By getting the opportunity to get people looking at these schools they may not see too often, Grant said it helps bring some much needed attention to the programs.
As these programs continue to move toward the top of the FCS ranks, the visibility that comes with playing a game on ABC could help provide a bump in recruiting.
“The thing we talk about always is the Jimmys and Joes,” Mack said. “It’s about the guys that go out there on the field, the blood, sweat and tears, and they make plays and they make things happen. And the better players that you can continually get to these programs, that’s going to make the brand and quality of football even better from year-to-year-to-year.”
A possible boost in talent could go a long way for two programs that were some of the best in FCS as they try to either return to the Celebration Bowl or make a run for a national championship.
Attracting people to the football teams is just the tip of the iceberg though. By playing in the Celebration Bowl, both North Carolina Central and Grambling can expect to see increases in their general enrollment, as that was the trend set by Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T last year.
“(North Carolina A&T) saw a 90 percent increase in their applications for the fall semester,” Grant said. “They had a record entry for freshmen in this freshman class in the history of the university. Alcorn State had the same level of experience. We know that exposure drives student recruiting and interest in students. Athletics and having a national stage that we have will do nothing but raise the level of interest and desire for students to do a look and relook at HBCUs.”
Fobbs said there already has been a jump in Grambling’s enrollment. As the attention around the programs continues to increase the closer to the game it gets, there could be another rise for each school.
Winning is definitely on the mind of each coach, but simply by getting to play in the game, both schools got a boost in notoriety they would probably not received in another situation.
“It’s huge,” Fobbs said. “At the end of the day, all programs want exposure, and you can’t get any better exposure on our level than this particular football game. The opportunity to play on ABC, the opportunity to be the first bowl game of the season and in a huge area with a nice venue, you can’t beat that.”
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