What's at stake in the Cricket Celebration Bowl between Jackson State and South Carolina State?
On Saturday, SWAC champion Jackson State and MEAC champion South Carolina State will kick off the bowl season calendar and vie for an HBCU national championship in the 2024 Celebration Bowl, which will be held at noon ET in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Since 2015, the Celebration Bowl has pitted champions from the SWAC and MEAC against each other as a way to determine a definitive Black college football national championship. It’s the successor to prior championship bowl game attempts, the Pelican and Heritage Bowls.
Teams playing in the Celebration Bowl don’t participate in the FCS playoffs.
In the Celebration Bowl, Jackson State is looking for its fourth Black national championship and first since 1996 after losing the Celebration Bowl in 2021 and 2022 under Deion Sanders. South Carolina State seeks its seventh after it beat JSU in the 2021 Celebration Bowl.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TURNOVER:
- 2024 college football coach firings and changes
- A running list of college football players skipping 2024-25 bowl games
- Tracking the biggest names to enter the college football transfer portal after the 2024 season
Jackson State enters this game with an 11-2 record led by second-year coach TC Taylor, who was elevated to replace Sanders after the latter left for Colorado. It defeated Southern 41-13 in the SWAC championship game.
South Carolina State, meanwhile, is 9-2 under first-year coach Chennis Berry, who came from Division II Benedict to replace longtime coach Buddy Pough, who won three HBCU national titles in his 22-year tenure.
The Tigers enter this game on a nine-game winning streak, while the Bulldogs are winners of their last eight.