# 2023 Celebration Bowl

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. 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.

## Teams

The game featured teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

### Howard Bison

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.

### Florida A&M Rattlers

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.

## Game summary

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.
| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Howard | 14 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 26 |
| No. 10 Florida A&M | 0 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 30 |
at Mercedes-Benz Stadium • Atlanta, Georgia
* Date: Saturday, December 16, 2023
* Game time: 12:00 p.m. EST
* Game weather: N/A (indoor stadium)
* Game attendance: 41,108
* Referee: Christian Watson
* TV announcers (ABC): Tiffany Greene (play-by-play), Jay Walker (analyst), and Quint Kessenich (sideline)
* Box score

### Statistics

| Statistics | HOW | FAMU |
| First downs | 11 | 19 |
| Plays–yards | 55–187 | 67–357 |
| Rushes–yards | 28–81 | 35–68 |
| Passing yards | 106 | 289 |
| Passing: comp–att–int | 14–27–3 | 19–32–2 |
| Time of possession | 27:12 | 32:48 |
| Team | Category | Player | Statistics |
| Howard | Passing | Quinton Williams | 14–27, 106 yards, 3 INT |
| Howard | Rushing | Eden James | 12 carries, 55 yards |
| Howard | Receiving | Nah'shawn Hezekiah | 3 receptions, 46 yards |
| Florida A&M | Passing | Jeremy Moussa | 19–32, 289 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT |
| Florida A&M | Rushing | Terrell Jennings | 19 carries, 68 yards, 1 TD |
| Florida A&M | Receiving | Kelvin Dean | 3 receptions, 87 yards, 2 TD |