ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- Has the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference uninvited itself to the party?
Having an automatic qualifying berth to the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for years had given MEAC programs a fighting chance to put their best team into the field to play for the national trophy.
But this past offseason, the MEAC decided to relinquish the conference’s automatic qualifier status. This was done in favor of signing an agreement with the Southwestern Athletic Conference to send both conferences’ regular-season champions to the newly created Celebration Bowl, set for Dec. 19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Fast forward to this past Sunday when the FCS playoff bids were announced, and no MEAC school is in the mix — not Bethune-Cookman (9-2 record), not North Carolina A&T (9-2 record) or even N.C. Central (8-3 record).
Granted, N.C. A&T won the tiebreaker to represent the MEAC in the inaugural Celebration Bowl, which will be broadcast live at noon on ABC television affiliates nationwide. The Aggies will take on the SWAC Championship winner from a game between Alcorn State and Grambling State, which will be played on Dec. 5.
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