South Carolina State and PVAMU Meet in the HBCU National Championship

To cap off two of the best individual seasons in HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) football, South Carolina State and Prairie View A&M will meet in this year’s Celebration Bowl.

The Celebration Bowl is the only traditional Bowl game at the FCS level, which has a true national championship tournament. That is not the only thing that makes this game special, though. The Celebration Bowl is also recognized as the HBCU National Championship Game.

It is the biggest game of the year for Division I HBCUs across the country. It’s also one of the few times a year these teams are highlighted. The 2025 Celebration Bowl is sure to give football fans a showing of how great the talent is at Historically Black college football programs.

Celebration Bowl 2025

Celebration Bowl History

This will be the 10th iteration of the Celebration Bowl. The game was first played at the end of the 2015 season. That game features North Carolina A&T against Alcorn State. The Aggies from Greensboro won the first Celebration Bowl 41-34.

The game puts the champions of the two premier HBCU conferences against each other. These conferences are the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) against the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The MEAC currently leads the series 6-3.

Last year’s game was won by the SWAC representative Jackson State, the former school of NFL rookies Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. This season’s SWAC representative will be Prairie View A&M, which is making their first appearance in the Celebration Bowl. The MEAC representative is South Carolina State, who will be making their return to the championship game for the second year in a row.

South Carolina State Makes Its Second Straight Trip

The Bulldogs will be making their second-straight, and third appearance overall in the Celebration Bowl this weekend. Head coach Chennis Berry has done a phenomenal job in his first two years at South Carolina State. He’s got a 10-0 record in MEAC games and two straight conference championships. Berry has received a ton of accolades in his short tenure at South Carolina State, but the one thing he doesn’t have is the Celebration Bowl championship.

Last year, Berry’s team lost in a crushing defeat, 28-7. They’ve put in the work to get back to the national championship game this season. The Bulldogs not only went undefeated in conference play, but won three out of their five MEAC games by at least two scores. South Carolina State’s last two wins of the season are what earned its trip to Atlanta.

The Bulldogs beat the next two top teams in their conference in back-to-back games. It started with a close 34-27 win over North Carolina Central, a perennial contender to win the MEAC. After that win, South Carolina State moved on to Delaware State. The Bulldogs beat the Hornets, coached by NFL legend Desean Jackson, 28-17 to secure their spot in the Celebration Bowl.

Prairie View’s Journey

One of the most impressive parts of Prairie View’s journey to its first-ever Celebration Bowl is that it’s under the leadership of a new head coach. Panthers head coach Tremaine Jackson seems to be following in the footsteps of Berry, leading his team to the HBCU National Championship in his first year with his program.

Jackson was named the PVAMU head coach on New Year’s Day 2025. He immediately continued the success he had at the Division II level previously. Jackson brought Valdosta State to the Division II National Championship Game in 2024. Now in 2025, he is coaching in another national championship game, but he’s hoping for a win this time.

Jackson certainly has the team to do it, coming into this game at 10-3 overall. The Panthers’ last victory came in the SWAC championship game, defeating last year’s Celebration Bowl champs Jackson State 23-21. It was the closest finish they had in about a month, winning their previous three games a combined 163-20.

Prairie View is averaging 31 points per game while allowing just 16.2 points per game on the season. PVAMU will be bringing a high-powered offense and fast, physical defense to Atlanta this weekend.

Players To Watch

There will be many highly talented players taking the field in the Celebration Bowl this year. Both teams have quite a few playmakers who’ve been difference makers all season. For example, much of South Carolina State’s success has come from the play of their talented quarterback, William Atkinson IV.

The graduate quarterback is a high-IQ football player who is not afraid to push the ball downfield. Atkinson has completed 62.6% of his passes for 2,323 yards, 17 touchdowns, and just four interceptions. On the defensive side of the ball, the Bulldogs have a couple of disrupters up front.

Interior defensive lineman Josh Baker causes problems for opponents in the run game. Baker gets constant penetration playing in the middle of the defense, accumulating 9.5 tackles for loss and four sacks on the season. On the edge, Michael Lunz has filled the stat sheet with 42 total tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles. Lunz does well both playing the run and getting after the quarterback.

Getting pressure on the quarterback is going to be important this weekend, in order to slow down PVAMU’s prolific offense, led by Cameron Peters. The senior quarterback is a playmaker with both his arm and legs. He’s passed for 2,386 yards and 19 touchdowns this season while also being the Panthers’ second leading rusher. Peters has 95 carries for 490 yards and four touchdowns. He isn’t doing it all himself though. Peters has some highly skilled players around him.

His number one target in the passing game is wide receiver Jyzaiah Rockwell, who has over 1,000 receiving yards this season. Lined up in the backfield next to Peters is running back Chase Bingmon, the team’s leading rusher. Bingmon isn’t the biggest player on the field, but his elusiveness makes him hard to bring down. He has 154 carries for 880 yards on the season. These three playmakers on the PVAMU offense make it difficult to defend the Panthers.

With so much talent on both sidelines, expect a very entertaining showing by these HBCU programs in the 10th annual Celebration Bowl. Stay tuned during halftime as well to get a peek at the amazing marching bands!