St. Louis would be a great site for future Celebration Bowls

ST. LOUIS, Missouri -- The inaugural Celebration Bowl in Atlanta provided a great game between North Carolina A&T and Alcorn State, and it could also breathe new life into faltering HBCU football programs.

A&T prevailed over Alcorn 41-34 in the December 19 game, a historic partnership between the SWAC, MEAC and ESPN. The respective conference champions declined automatic bids into the FCS playoffs to participate in the Celebration Bowl. The reward is a $1 million payout to each conference, which breaks down to $100,000 for each SWAC member and $91,000 for MEAC schools.

To pocket that kind of cash, both teams would have had to advance deep into the FBS playoffs. Should either A&T or Alcorn want to host an FBS playoff game, a $30,000 minimum bid would have to be submitted.
With an 11 a.m., kickoff on the first Saturday of NCAA bowl season, the game was one of the most-watched on television that day – something that had to impress the bottom-line folks at ESPN.

According to ShowBuzz Daily, the thrilling game drew a ...

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