What the Celebration Bowl demographic breakdown tells us about HBCU football

So, as we approach the new year, there’s been a very fervent conversation about the Cricket Celebration Bowl that has festered more than it has in recent years. Typically, after the Cricket Celebration Bowl ends, we talk about how amazing the game is. We prognosticate about the coaches, the players, and the matchup itself, and we preview next season in a way that gives us a little bit to look forward to as we wait months until the next football season.

But this year has been incredibly interesting because we’re talking less about the game that occurred—a four-overtime classic between Chennis Berry’s South Carolina State Bulldogs, who ultimately won the game, and Tremaine Jackson’s Prairie View A&M Panthers, who upset Jackson State to get to this opportunity. We’re not talking about the game itself; we’re talking about the business.

Now, a few weeks ago, people were talking about the attendance for the Celebration Bowl, and they found a way to spin 26,000 people in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as a bad thing for the outlook of the Celebration Bowl because their school wasn’t in it. I talked about it here on ClutchPoints and on HBCU Pulse Radio; I talked about how all these HBCU attendance conversations sound so archaic.

But now we are moving towards a different conversation that deals with the viewership for the Cricket Celebration Bowl on ABC. Kyle T. Mosley with HBCU Legends spoke with John T. Grant, who is the Executive Director of the Celebration Bowl, and he got the demographic breakdown of the 2.3 million people that watched the Celebration Bowl on ABC on December 14th. According to the numbers secured by Kyle T. Mosley, that viewership is 63% white, 25% black, and 7% Hispanic.

What people missed is the fact we don’t watch our own events. Also, are not in control of the ad revenue, impressions, tags, and content as a whole. It’s the same ol’ song. @hbculegends pic.twitter.com/W3908HZuhn

— Kyle T. Mosley (@ktmoze) December 27, 2025

Now, I want to be honest: as I move into the new year, I’m not trying to be on social media like that in 2026. I’ve gotten tired of the divisiveness. I’ve gotten tired of the arguments. I’ve gotten tired of everyone trying to prove that their opinion and their view is right or wrong, and I believe that in the pursuit of trying to prove their point correct, people say whatever, and it’s taken as fact in the argument when it ain’t even fact—it’s not true.

Yes, we are all trying to improve upon the viewership of HBCU football, the attendance at our HBCU events, and the interest around our sport. But I believe that some of our talking points are disingenuous. When we look at cold, hard facts like Kyle T. Mosley brought up in his post and his article, we then look at that information and proceed to spin narratives that I believe are destructive towards HBCU sports.

So, I want to give my opinion on the demographic breakdown and specifically there being more white viewers than viewers of color combined. A lot of the arguments I’ve seen on social media are that it is “ridiculous” and “asinine” that for an HBCU bowl game—the only HBCU bowl game in the system and the only FCS bowl—there’s only 25% black folks watching compared to 63% white viewership.

Don’t forget causation in research interpretation

Here’s the thing you learn when you study media the way I did at Fort Valley State University: when you look at numbers and statistics, there’s always a causation. You have the Celebration Bowl, which is the first bowl game of the season, unimpeded by other bowl games, and it had no NFL interference the way we saw the next weekend with the College Football Playoffs. So, you have to look at the causation.

Why is it that 63% of white viewers were watching the Celebration Bowl? Well, they watched the Celebration Bowl because that was the only bowl game that was on. I would assume we’re going to see a higher amount of non-black viewers in this specific window because of the tradition of bowl season and the fact that the Celebration Bowl is not tied to the same issues other bowl games are tied to.

You hear the conversations about how the bowl game system is antiquated or being destroyed because of the transfer portal and the expanded playoffs. These bowl games don’t mean anything to some, but in HBCU football, the Celebration Bowl means everything. It means so much that Tremaine Jackson was singing about going to Atlanta back in February. All the coaches at Media Day spoke about how their goal was to make it to Atlanta because that’s the North Star in HBCU football. That is the HBCU National Championship.

 

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So, with it being the first bowl game of the year and the only game on at that time—plus the way the game was constructed, with Prairie View A&M going into halftime with a 21-0 lead and South Carolina State fighting back to win in four overtimes—yeah, there’s going to be a lot of people that ain’t black watching that. You’re seeing a compelling sporting event, and you want to see how it ends. Someone might say, “I’ve never heard of South Carolina State or Prairie View, but I’m a UGA fan or an Ohio State fan, and I just love college football. I’m going to see what’s going on on ABC.”

We also know that ABC is broadcast television, so more households get it. As John Grant spoke about in the HBCU Legends article, Nielsen changed the way they do television audience measurement. Now we know there are more ways to calculate how many people are watching through digital platforms and out-of-home viewing—at a sports bar, a restaurant, Applebee’s, or Outback.

I believe this causation is why you see 63% white viewers. And I think, to be honest, that’s a great thing. It shows that HBCU football can command viewers if given the opportunity. It’s a point of discovery. Who’s to say that out of those non-black viewers, they won’t come back and watch the MEAC/SWAC Challenge? Who’s to say they won’t become fans of South Carolina State or Tremaine Jackson? Maybe they become “sidewalk fans” because they were able to see the special culture around HBCU football and now they become a fan of an HBCU in their area.

I don’t look at that 70% non-black viewership number as bad. I look at it as amazing. It helps our argument that HBCU football is valid and can draw viewership, and it proves the point of the Celebration Bowl as a showcase for the culture.

Stop Putting A Negative Spin On The Black Viewership

Now, let’s talk about black viewership. Kyle Mosley did the math: the program averaged 2,300,000 viewers, and at 25%, that means 575,000 black viewers watched the Cricket Celebration Bowl. Again, it’s interesting when we spin our narratives in the HBCU community, especially on Twitter; we don’t look at the bigger picture. 575,000 people in a demographic group comprising a portion of 2.3 million viewers in 2025 is amazing. We should not be looking at that number poorly. In fact, we should be looking at it enthusiastically.

There are over 100 HBCUs in the nation. The Celebration Bowl has been around for ten years. In HBCU football, we deal with two things: an enthusiasm gap and an attention gap. Oftentimes, fans are only followers of their school. If you’re a Fort Valley State fan, you are really only focused on Fort Valley. Since we’re DII, you might not be looking at what Jackson State, South Carolina State, or Delaware State are doing. We have to deal with the factor that people are more loyal to their schools than just flipping on ESPNU on a Thursday to watch a game they have no affiliation to outside of it being two HBCUs.

We also understand there’s an enthusiasm gap about the game itself versus the culture. They told us in 2002 in the HBCU classic Drumline: “halftime is game time.” A lot of people like the culture around HBCU football more than the game itself. Many of these conversations are surface-level or just about whose band is the best.

So, when we talk about how to drum up viewership, how about the fact that you had 26,000 people in the stadium and 575,000 black folks watching at home? How is that a bad thing? How is that not great for the Celebration Bowl when they are pitching to advertisers and sponsors? You can reach at least half a million black folks watching this game. Tap in with us; buy with us. That is a benefit for the participating HBCUs and the conferences that get money from the bowl game concept.

Negative Narratives versus Constructive Criticism: What Are You Doing?

I’m tired of us looking at these numbers and finding a way to make it bad. We look at things as the cup half empty and not the cup half full. We had over half a million black folks watch the Celebration Bowl, but we’re acting like it’s a bad thing. I understand that a lot of these conversations are rooted in constructive criticism and trying to make our institutions better, and for that, I understand it. But what I’m saying—and what I’ve been saying on HBCU Pulse Radio and here on ClutchPoints—is that we’re talking about our institutions in the wrong way. We talk as if everything is a problem.

We have to look at the numbers we have appropriately, analyze the data and research appropriately, and then we can formulate strategies to make it so over a million black folks are watching. We should look at this positively and, in love, come up with strategies to grow our brands.

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