2015 Celebration Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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Date | December 19, 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
Season | 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Georgia Dome | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Atlanta, Georgia | ||||||||||||||||||
MVP | Offense: #28 RB Tarik Cohen, North Carolina A&T Defense: #56 LB Denzel Jones, North Carolina A&T |
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Referee | Marvel July (Mtn. West) | ||||||||||||||||||
Halftime show |
Blue & Gold Marching Machine Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite Marching Band |
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Attendance | 35,528 | ||||||||||||||||||
Payout | US$1,000,000 (Per Conference) | ||||||||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
Network |
ABC RedVoice, LLC. |
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Announcers |
Mark Neely, Jay Walker, & Tiffany Greene (ABC) Sam Crenshaw & Hugh Douglas (RedVoice) |
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Nielsen ratings | 1.89 ( viewers) | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2015 Celebration Bowl (officially known as the 2015 Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl) was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 19, 2015 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The inaugural Celebration Bowl game pitted the North Carolina A&T Aggies, co-champion of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, against the Alcorn State Braves, champion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The event was the finale of the 2015 FCS football season for both conferences as their champions abstain from the NCAA Division I FCS football playoffs.
The game kicked off at 12:00 PM (EST) and was televised live on ABC. The game was also carried nationally on the radio by RedVoice, LLC. ESPN Events was the organizer of the game, while the 100 Black Men of Atlanta managed the game's ancillary events. The United States Air Force Reserve were the title sponsors of the game.
22nd ranked North Carolina A&T won the game, beating Alcorn State by the score of 41–34, claiming the 2015 Black college football national championship before an announced crowd of 35,528.
The participants for the Celebration Bowl game are based upon the final regular season standings which determine the MEAC football champion and the SWAC football championship Game determining the SWAC representative. The MEAC representative was announced on November 22, 2015, after the release of the final Sagrin ratings. As part of the MEAC tiebreaker, the ratings determined which of the 3 Co-Champions would represent the conference in the bowl game. The SWAC representative was announced at the conclusion of the SWAC Football Championship Game which matched the top teams from the conferences' eastern and western division.