| Game Name: | Celebration Bowl |
| Subheader: | 8th Celebration Bowl |
| Title Sponsor: | Cricket |
| Date Game Played: | December 16 |
| Year Game Played: | 2023 |
| Football Season: | 2023 |
| Stadium: | Mercedes-Benz Stadium |
| City: | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Visitor School: | Howard University |
| Visitor Name Short: | Howard |
| Visitor Nickname: | Bison |
| Visitor Record: | 6–5 |
| Visitor Conference: | MEAC |
| Visitor Coach: | Larry Scott |
| Visitor 1Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 2 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 0 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 10 |
| Home School: | Florida A&M University |
| Home Name Short: | Florida A&M |
| Home Nickname: | Rattlers |
| Home Record: | 11–1 |
| Home Conference: | SWAC |
| Home Rank Stats: | 10 |
| Home Rank Coaches: | 5 |
| Home Coach: | Willie Simmons |
| Home 1Q: | 0 |
| Home 2Q: | 10 |
| Home 3Q: | 0 |
| Home 4Q: | 20 |
| Mvp: | Kelvin Dean (RB, Florida A&M) & Isaiah Major (LB, Florida A&M)<ref>AlisonPosey14 . 1736131988686307556 . No surprise that @Rhsathletics1 product Kelvin Dean is your Offensive MVP of the 2023 Celebration Bowl. Isaiah Major is your defensive MVP. . December 16, 2023 . December 16, 2023. |
| Odds: | Florida A&M by 6.5 |
| Halftime: | Howard "Showtime" Marching Band and Florida A&M Marching 100[1] |
| Referee: | Christian Watson (Mountain West)[2] |
| Attendance: | 41,108 |
| Us Network: | ABC |
| Us Announcers: | Tiffany Greene (play-by-play), Jay Walker (analyst), and Quint Kessenich (sideline) |
| Intl Network: | Canada: TSN2 Brazil: ESPN Brazil |
| Intl Announcers: | Matheus Pinheiro (play-by-play) and Rafael Belattini (analyst) |
The 2023 Celebration Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 16, 2023, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The eighth annual Celebration Bowl featured the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), the Howard Bison, and the champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), the Florida A&M Rattlers. The game began at approximately 12:00 p.m. EST and was aired on ABC.[3] [4] Sponsored by Cricket Wireless, the game was officially known as the Cricket Celebration Bowl.
The SWAC and MEAC are the two NCAA Division I conferences of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The Celebration Bowl thus serves as a de facto black college football national championship.
The Celebration Bowl was the only one of the 2023–24 bowl games involving teams from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The NCAA structured a 24-team bracket tournament to determine a champion for the 2023 FCS football season. The 2023 Celebration Bowl was the first time the SWAC champions defeated the MEAC champions since the 2016.
The game featured teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
See main article: 2023 Howard Bison football team. Howard entered the game with a 6–5 record, 4–1 in conference play and tied with North Carolina Central atop MEAC standings. Howard qualified for the Celebration Bowl due to their regular-season win over North Carolina Central.[5] [6]
Florida A&M completed their regular season with a 10–1 record, 8–0 in conference play; their only loss was to South Florida of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Rattlers then defeated Prairie View A&M in the 2023 SWAC Football Championship Game, contested on December 2, qualifying them for the Celebration Bowl.[7]
Howard held a 14–0 lead after the first quarter, and a 16–10 lead at halftime. After no scoring in the third quarter, Florida A&M scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, while Howard was limited to a field goal and one touchdown, coming on a pick-six. Florida A&M's 30–26 victory marked only the second win by a SWAC team in the Celebration Bowl, the first having been by Grambling State in the 2016 edition.