SC On The Road: What the Celebration Bowl means to HBCUs

ATLANTA, Georgia -- This year's bowl season will kick off a little differently.

Forget teams with six-win seasons or squads teetering along with an interim head coach. The 2015 college football postseason begins with two conference champions squaring off: Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T.

The two FCS programs -- both known as historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) -- will make history when they meet in the inaugural Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl on Saturday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta (noon ET, ABC).

"That's really a cool deal," Alcorn State coach Jay Hopson said.

The game pits the champions from the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) and the SWAC (Southwestern Athletic Conference) in what North Carolina A&T coach Rod Broadway calls the "black college national championship" since both conferences are comprised of HBCUs.

"I'm happy for our guys to have an opportunity to experience a bowl game," Broadway said. "I've been there and done it but for our kids to have the opportunity to experience something like that, it's a beautiful thing, especially with it being the first."

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