For the fourth time in five years, there will be no HBCU in the FCS playoffs.
The FCS committee announced its playoff bracket and no team from the MEAC or SWAC was selected.
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SCSU hoped its 20-17 overtime win at Norfolk State on Saturday would be enough to get in as it finished with an 8-3 record. Instead it will miss the playoffs while a team with the same record that it beat in its opener will be competing for a national title in Wofford. Despite claiming MEAC co-champ status, a berth was not guaranteed to make the FCS playoffs as the conference vacated its auto-bid and elected to send its champion to the Celebration Bowl.
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North Carolina A&T will represent the MEAC at the Celebration Bowl for the third time in as many years as Florida A&M, who finished with the best record, was ineligible due to a self-imposed ban.
The SWAC gave up its auto bid in 1999 to start the SWAC title game, and has not had a team selected since. The MEAC has not won a playoff game since 1999. Only once in five seasons since the Celebration Bowl has an HBCU been awarded an at-large playoff bid. A&T was given a bid after a 9-2 season in 2016 but lost its first-round opener to Richmond.
Tennessee State remains the only HBCU to win a FCS playoff game this century.
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This is why the celebration bowl is garbage. Putting two of the weakest conferences on ESPN is not helping HBCUs. Parents want their kids to compete at the highest level, not in some charity game because ESPN feels sorry for us