| 2017 Celebration Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 3rd Celebration Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 16, 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Mercedes-Benz Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Atlanta, Georgia | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Offense: #22 RB Marquell Cartwright, NC A&T Defense: #29 CB Franklin "Mac" McCain III, NC A&T | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | North Carolina A&T (by 9.5 pts) | ||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Jekalyn Carr | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Jay Edwards (C-USA) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Blue and Gold Marching Machine GSU Tiger Marching Band | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 25,873[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Payout | US$1,000,000 (Per Conference) | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC RedVoice, LLC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Mark Neely, Jay Walker, & Tiffany Greene (ABC) Sam Crenshaw, Randy McMichael, & Lericia Harris (RedVoice) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 1.59 (Viewers)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2017 Celebration Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game that was played on December 16, 2017 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. This third Celebration Bowl game matched the champion of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, against the champion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the two historically black division I conferences. The event was the finale of the 2017 FCS football season for both conferences as neither had teams earn an at large selections into the NCAA Division I FCS football playoffs and their champions abstain from the tournament.
The game kicked off at 12:00 PM (EST) and was televised live on ABC, as the kickoff game to the 2017 Bowl season.[3] ESPN Events was the organizer of the game, while the 100 Black Men of Atlanta managed the game's ancillary events. The #7th ranked North Carolina A&T Aggies won the game, beating #13th ranked Grambling State Tigers by the score of 21–14, claiming the 2017 black college football national championship