It’s Bowl season and once again the first bowl game of the 2018 college football season will be the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl. Kicking off Saturday,December 15th at 12 Noon Eastern Standard time in Atlantas’ Mercedes Benz Stadium.
This game is a major factor in helping decide who is to become the Black College football National champion. Last season the North Carolina A&T Aggies won the game and claimed the National title; The year before Grambling State won the game and laid their claim to the black college national championship crown.
"The Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl this weekend in Atlanta is the first of 41 nationally televised bowl games, giving historically black colleges and universities some of the bowl-season spotlight and everything that comes with it." https://t.co/hJvW1FtV1D
— AFR Celebration Bowl (@CelebrationBowl) December 12, 2018
This year is a rematch of the very first Celebration Bowl which kicked off in 2015 and concluded with the Aggies of North Carolina A&T outlasting the Braves of Alcorn State 41-34 in front of 35,000 fans in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. In 2016 Grambling state slipped past North Carolina Central 10-9 and last season North Carolina A&T completed its perfect season with a 21-14 win over Grambling State. That means the defending champion has played in each game since the 2015 inaugural game.
North Carolina A&T returns to the bowl this season with a record of 9 wins against 2 losses powered by the momentum of a 4 game winning streak. Their opponent the Braves of Alcorn State who have 9 wins against 3 losses are fresh off a SWAC title game win over Southern University. By the way the Aggies are ranked #2 on the Urban Media Today Black Colllege Football Poll and the Braves are ranked #3. (Both teams sit behind Division II power Bowie state who finished this season with 10 wins and 3 losses).
Saturday keep your eye on the quarterback battle between Lamar Raynard of North Carolina A&T and Noah Johnson of Alcorn State. Raynard is the returning Qb for the defending national champions and Johnson is ranked in the top 50 in passing yards for all Qbs in FCS (Football Championship Series) football. This season Raynard has passed for 1630 yards in 10 games while Johnson passed for 2079 yards in 12 games
A key to this game may be the scoring offense of Alcorn State which is ranked in the top 25 of FCS Football facing the scoring defense North Carolina A&T which is ranked in the top five of all of FCS football. The Aggies only allowed 13.5 points per game while the Braves offense generated 33.5 points per game.
This Saturday 12 noon Eastern Standard time its the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl live from Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta Georgia. Defending Champion North Carolina A&T takes on the SWAC champions Alcorn State Braves.
