Celebration Bowl gets set for its 2nd year

ATLANTA, Georgia -- John Grant, the executive director of the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl, is excited about the potential of the annual contest between the winners of MEAC and SWAC and has already noticed how the game is growing in popularity, he said at a news conference Thursday.

Grant along with No. 18 North Carolina Central (9-2, 8-0 MEAC) coach Jerry Mack, No. 14 Grambling State (10-1, 9-0 SWAC) coach Broderick Fobbs and MEAC commissioner Dennis Thomas gathered at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to discuss the second installment of the Celebration Bowl.

The game, which will be hosted in the Georgia Dome, is the next in a long line of contests that pit the nation’s best HBCUs against each other. Grant and Thomas said this game is just following in the tradition of those before it and is providing a chance to give these HBCUs even more visibility than before.

“We had a over 11.8 million viewers of this game last year,” Grant said. “That means we had a lot of people … tuned into this fantastic football game and they got to see a quality, competitive game.”

Fobbs echoed that sentiment and said he thinks the Celebration Bowl can grow to be an even bigger matchup than the Bayou Classic, the annual game between Grambling and Southern.

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