The Howard Bison earns its first Celebration Bowl bid
With consecutive wins over Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rivals North Carolina Central University and Morgan State University, the Howard University Bison football program earned its first bid to the Cricket Celebration Bowl, considered the HBCU national championship game.
The eighth annual Celebration Bowl will be held at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, December 16 at noon as the Bison will take on the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) champion.
The SWAC winner will be decided on December 2 at (4 p.m. EST) at Bragg Memorial Stadium on the campus of Florida A&M University when the Rattlers, 8-0 in the SWAC East and 10-1 overall, host the Prairie View A&M Panthers (6-2, 7-4) of the West division.
Last year’s Celebration Bowl saw the game’s first overtime as North Carolina Central of the MEAC bested SWAC representative Jackson State 41-34. The JSU Tigers were led by former head coach Deion Sanders and his son, starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who both now hold the same positions for the University of Colorado.
Howard, 6-5 and 4-1 in MEAC games, sealed their spot with a 14-7 home win over Morgan State last Saturday. In a defensive battle, Bison running back Jarrett Hunter scored the game’s first touchdown as Howard took a 7-0 halftime lead and quarterback Quinton Williams added another rushing TD at Greene Stadium as the 14 points held up versus the Bears (4-6, 3-2).
“Congratulations to the MEAC champion Howard University Bison for earning their first trip to the Cricket Celebration Bowl,” said John Grant, the bowl’s executive director.
Last season, Howard’s basketball program made its first NCAA Men’s March Madness field since 1992 with a 65-64 victory over Norfolk State in the MEAC tournament championship game. They lost their opening game of the single-elimination event to the No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks.
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