Year Game Played: | 2019 |
Game Name: | Celebration Bowl |
Subheader: | 5th Celebration Bowl |
Visitor Name Short: | Alcorn State |
Visitor Nickname: | Braves |
Home Nickname: | Aggies |
Visitor School: | Alcorn State University |
Home Name Short: | North Carolina A&T |
Football Season: | 2019 |
Home School: | North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University |
Visitor Record: | 9–3 |
Home Record: | 8–3 |
Visitor Conference: | SWAC |
Home Conference: | MEAC |
Visitor 1Q: | 3 |
Home 1Q: | 0 |
Visitor 2Q: | 7 |
Visitor 3Q: | 21 |
Visitor 4Q: | 13 |
Home 2Q: | 24 |
Home 3Q: | 28 |
Home 4Q: | 12 |
Visitor Coach: | Fred McNair |
Home Coach: | Sam Washington |
Home Rank Stats: | 23 |
Date Game Played: | December 21 |
Stadium: | Mercedes-Benz Stadium |
City: | Atlanta, Georgia |
Mvp: | Kylil Carter (QB, NC A&T) & Jacob Roberts (LB, NC A&T)<ref>AWainwrightTV . 1208493386854019072 . Highlights: . December 21, 2019 . December 21, 2019. |
Odds: | North Carolina A&T by 3[1] |
Referee: | Hubert Owens (SEC)[2] [3] |
Attendance: | 32,968 |
Us Network: | ABC |
Us Announcers: | Mark Jones (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek and Jay Walker (analysts), Roddy Jones and Tiffany Greene (sidline) |
Different Next: | 2021 |
The 2019 Celebration Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 21, 2019, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST on ABC.[4] It was the 5th edition of the Celebration Bowl, and the only one of the 2019–20 bowl games to feature FCS teams.
For the second consecutive year, the bowl was played between the Alcorn State Braves and the North Carolina A&T Aggies.
See main article: 2019 Alcorn State Braves football team. Alcorn State earned their berth in the Celebration Bowl via a win over the Southern Jaguars in the SWAC Championship Game on December 7.[5] The Braves entered the Celebration Bowl with a 9–3 overall record (6–1 in conference). This was their third appearance in the Celebration Bowl, having lost their prior two appearances (2015 and 2018); both losses were to North Carolina A&T.
North Carolina A&T, led by second-year head coach Sam Washington, clinched their spot in the Celebration bowl on November 23 with their win over North Carolina Central.[6] The Aggies entered the game with an overall 8–3 record (6–2 in conference). They finished runner-up in the MEAC behind Florida A&M, who were ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA sanctions.[7] This was the Aggies' fourth appearance in the Celebration Bowl, having won each of their previous three (2015, 2017, 2018).