Past participants of both have stated they prefer the Celebration Bowl
From first-hand experience, three coaches have participated in both the Celebration Bowl and the FCS Playoffs. They all agree that there is no comparison between the two. What ESPN’s Executive Director of the Cricket Celebration Bowl, John Grant, has established is a first class roster of events that celebrates the HBCU culture. He told HBCU Gameday the coaches’ comments have spoken volumes.
“The best people to articulate the benefit (of the Celebration Bowl) are those who have been. I’m talking about the teams. The first one to us was Rod Broadway back in 2016 when they went to the (FCS) playoffs, he publicly said that that was a consolation prize – and he has coached at all the levels – that that was a consolation prize. If you ask Trei Oliver who just went, he will tell you it was a consolation prize. Ask Willie Simmons. He just came to his first Celebration Bowl and if you ask him today versus their playoff run in 2021 – he said it himself, he’d pick the Celebration Bowl every single time.”
FAMU head coach Willie Simmons was asked the question directly after winning the Celebration Bowl on Saturday.
“I’ve been a part of bowls as a player and as a coach and so just a bowl experience is unique in and of itself. The FCS playoffs, it’s a playoff format, but it’s still like a normal game. You leave on Friday and you stay in a hotel and you play the next day, so you don’t get a chance to do professional development, you don’t get a chance to network…you don’t get a chance to tour the College Football Hall of Fame and the World of Coke and all the great things that the Celebration Bowl has put together for these student-athletes…You really wouldn’t trade it for the world. The viewership, the opportunity to be on the national stage, I mean, this game has out drawn the FCS National Championship every year and we’ll continue to do so…I’m a huge proponent of the Celebration Bowl,” Simmons said.
Lastly, the schools at the top of the FCS, North Dakota State in particular, have budgets that rival some FBS Schools. For example their budget last year was about $26 million. Last year, FAMU’s budget was about $10 million. What the Celebration Bowl does is more accurately match oranges to oranges, where some of these FCS schools, particularly those in the upper echelon are operating at FBS levels. That is not the modus operandi of HBCUs.
For all of these tangible reasons, I applaud the Celebration Bowl as the solidifying vehicle for determining the HBCU National Champion. There is an option and some have exercised it. North Carolina A&T and Hampton have chosen to pursue the FCS Playoffs and have changed conferences. It is debatable how that is working out…maybe only time will tell.