The Travis Hunter Recruitment and SC State Defeating Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl Were Great Things for the Future of HBCU Football

2.5 Million Viewers! The ratings were great for the Celebration Bowl that occurred on December 18. As these things goes, it took a couple of days for the ratings to come out. The South Carolina State Bulldogs defeated The Jackson State Tigers 31-10 to win the HBCU Football Championship. The game pitted the SWAC champion against the MEAC champion. Jackson State coached by Deion Sanders was a prohibitive favorite. But as they say they play the game on the field. 

A few days before the game, Jackson State landed the number one high school recruit in the country. Travis Hunter, Jr. shocked the college football world by walking back his oral committee to Florida State and chose to continue his pursuit to one day land in the NFL by choosing Jackson State.

Check out the interview and pod below.







The Celebration Bowl was a celebration of HBCU football on Saturday in Atlanta. And a lot of viewers at home joined in on the party.

The game featuring Jackson State football and SC State garnered 2.587 million TV viewers and a 1.61 rating, according to Showbuzz Daily, who gathers data from Nielsen each day.

It was third-most watched bowl game of the opening weekend of bowl season, falling just short of the Independence Bowl between nationally-ranked BYU and UAB (3.221 million viewers) and the prime-time Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl (2.892 million viewers). All three games were broadcast Saturday on ABC.

The Celebration Bowl's viewership beat out six FBS bowl games broadcast on Friday and Saturday. It was a step up from the previous edition of the event, the 2019 game between Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T that garnered 1.805 million viewers, and the highest viewership for the bowl game since 2016.

Jackson State, with an 11-1 regular season record in Deion Sanders' second season as head coach, was upset 31-10 Saturday by the Bulldogs.

This portion of this post originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Celebration Bowl 2021 TV ratings: Jackson State football, Deion Sanders gain viewers