J-Speaks: MEAC School Wins HBCU Title in Inaugural Bowl

Back on Dec. 27, 1892, the first Black College Intercollegiate football contest was played between the Livingstone College Bears and the Biddle College Golden Bulls and the Golden Bulls, who eventually had its name changed to Johnson C. Smith University won the game 5-0. Over 123 years later two other Historically Black Colleges/University’s (HBCU) made history in matching up in a bowl game to determine the outright HBCU National Champion. The game was close, but there were a plethora of points scored in this inaugural bowl game in Atlanta, GA.

In the inaugural Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl, the North Carolina A&T Aggies of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) defeated the Alcorn State Braves of the Southwestern Athletic Conference 41-34 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

The win capped an impressive season for the Aggies (10-2; 7-1 MEAC), who five seasons prior to the arrival were at the bottom of their conference, where they finished 1-10 prior to the arrival of head coach Rod Broadway. They had seven consecutive losing seasons and limitations in the number of available scholarships and how they could practice due to low NCAA Academic Progress Rate scores.

The 2015 Co-champions of the MEAC garnered not just their 33^rd victory over the past four seasons, it marked the first double-digit winning season since 2003 and it gave them the HBCU National title.

The Aggies were led to victory by the back-to-back MEAC Player of the Year in junior running back Tarik Cohen. The Bunn, NC product had 22 rushes for a career-high of 295 yards and scored three touchdowns. The Aggies’ all-time leading rusher’s third touchdown run of 73 yards with 4:17 remaining in the fourth broke the 34-34 deadlock and gave the Aggies the lead and eventually the win. He also had scoring runs of 74 and 83 yards.

Cohen was a big reason the Aggies tallied 543 total offensive yards and gave the Aggies the opportunity to win a game in which their second ranked and fifth best scoring defense in the FCS at 15.6 points allowed failed them this past Saturday. The 34 points allowed were the most the Aggies gave up in 2015.
The fireworks in this game began with a 74-yard punt return by sophomore wide receiver Khris Gardin of Morganton, NC to make the score 7-0. It was the third punt returned for a score this season by Gardin, who had an 82-yard return for a score against Howard and a 71-yard return for a touchdown against Hampton.
Gardin has been dangerous all season in the return game for the Aggies averaging a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) record of 60.5 yards per return and his 740 punt return yards this season are a new FCS record for one year.

The loss was a tough way to end the season for the Braves (9-4; 7-2 SWAC), who won their second consecutive SWAC title back on Dec. 5, but fell short of achieving consecutive 10-win seasons.

With that being said, the 11-time SWAC champions have come a long way under head coach Jay Hopson. Just three years ago, the Braves were 2-8 and since then have gone 32-17, consisting of three straight nine-win seasons.

While the Aggies claimed victory on the field, the game itself was a victory on many levels for both the MEAC and SWAC conferences, who got a chance to showcase their teams and their leagues to a national audience.

“Just gives the nation an opportunity to see what were all about,” SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp said to ESPN sideline reporter Tiffany Greene during the game on Saturday.

“The passion. The pageantry and the pride that our fans take and to watch our student athletes perform.”

The Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference are the only two FCS conferences to currently have a bowl game.
For the MEAC to have a chance to have a participant in this bowl, which ended up being North Carolina A&T, which Greene mentioned during the game this past Saturday, they had to give up their automatic qualifier bid with the FCS playoffs.

After consulting with the powers of the MEAC from the each school’s football head coaches and each school’s Director of Athletics, Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas told Greene that they all felt that it was, “adventitious for us to participate and be aligned with the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl.”

Both teams as it was mentioned by commentators of ESPN during the game Mark Neely and Jay Walker that both teams took advantage of each opportunity they had during the week in leading up to the bowl game.

The Aggies and the Braves visited the College Football Hall of Fame, which is located down the street from the Georgia Dome and has been open for about a year and a half.

Both teams also had a chance to visit the Civil Rights Museum, which coach Broadway of the Aggies said it was one of his favorite stops for his team during last week.

The Aggies and the Braves closed the week by doing some community service in visiting the Stephanie V. Blank Center for Safe and Healthy Children.

This opportunity for the student athletes of both teams and the activities they were able to be a part of leading up to the bowl game would have not been possible though without title promotional considerations of companies and organizations like the Air Force Reserves, Capitol One, McDonald’s, Mission Impossible, Progressive, Rain-X and the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, something that Commissioner Sharp mentioned to Greene.

“It really has to start with sponsorship and getting that economic boost behind the game and from there everything kind of grows.”
The greatest example of this is the Big Apple Classic Basketball Tournament, which just happened for the eighth year in succession back Dec. 6^th and for the second straight year took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.

This exhibition has grown from a game which has featured prominent HBCUs of the MEAC, which this year featured the North Carolina Central University Eagles vs. the Howard University Bison and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association rivals Virginia State University and Virginia Union University to a weekend event featuring a college fair, professional networking event; a battle of the school bands; a step show; drumline competition and an award ceremony entitled.  
This model will hopefully be duplicated by the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl in the years to come.

On the football side, it will give MEAC schools like Bethune-Cookman University; Coppin State University; Delaware State University; Florida A&M University; University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Morgan State University; Norfolk State University; the aforementioned North Carolina Central; Savannah State University and South Carolina State and in the SWAC Alabama A&M University; Alabama State University; Jackson State University; Mississippi Valley State University; Grambling State University; Prairie View A&M University; Southern University; Texas Southern University and University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff to shoot for in terms of a winning a title and bringing exposure to their programs both in the classroom and the field of play.
Information, statistics and quotes are courtesy of 12/5/15 4 p.m. SWAC Championship Game between Alcorn State University versus Grambling State University on ESPN 2 from NRG Stadium in Houston, TX part of ESPN’s College Football Primetime presented by McDonald’s with commentators Mark Neely and Jay Walker with sideline reporter Tiffany Greene; 12/19/15 12 p.m. Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl between Alcorn State University versus North Carolina A&T University with commentators Mark Neely and Jay Walker and sideline reporter Tiffany Greene; 12/19/15 espn.go.com blog by Sam Khan Jr., “Tarik Cohen Rushes for 295 Yards as North Carolina A&T tops Alcorn State in Celebration Bowl;” www.aaregistry.org piece on “First Black College Football Game Played;” thebigappleclassic.com; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_C._Smith_University; www.meacsports.com; www.swac.org and www.theciaa.com.