The idea of a four-team HBCU football playoff has been floating around for years. Fans want it. Some coaches probably want it. But John Grant, the executive director of the Celebration Bowl, says it’s just not realistic right now. Not even close.
Grant laid it out during an appearance on Dr. Cavil’s Inside the HBCU Sports Lab. And his reasoning came down to two big problems: time on the calendar and time on TV.
The Calendar Problem
Right now, the SWAC schedule already runs tight. You’ve got the Bayou Classic at the end of the regular season, then the SWAC Championship game, and then right after that, the Celebration Bowl. There’s barely breathing room, let alone room for two more games. “Playoff timing. There isn’t a schedule and what that would look like,” Grant said. He’s not wrong.
Adding a semifinal round would mean squeezing games into November or early December. But November is already packed with rivalry games. Thanksgiving weekend is spoken for. Championship weekend is locked in. There’s no obvious window. And Grant doesn’t see one opening up.
TV Is the Real Wall
The scheduling issue is bad enough. But television might be the harder fix. “None of that works if you don’t have available television in town,” Grant said. “TV time is all tied up until you get to week two, where we are.”
He’s talking about December. Championship Weekend swallows all the air. Rivalry Weekend before that. And after the Celebration Bowl’s current spot, the NFL starts playing Saturday games, right alongside the College Football Playoff. “There is zero appetite to move the bowl game later,” Grant said, “because now you’re moving it into the mouth of jaws.”
The Celebration Bowl already moved its 2024 date up by a week to avoid clashing with the expanded CFP. That shift alone shows how tight the margins are. The 2026 game is scheduled under that same adjusted calendar.
What Would a Playoff Even Be Worth?
Grant says he’s heard the arguments. He gets why people want it. But he keeps coming back to the same question. “You have to look at what is the value and how can you deliver the value? All the things that would deliver the value do not exist.”
That’s a pretty direct way of saying the TV money isn’t there. The infrastructure isn’t there. And without those two things, a four-team HBCU playoff is just a wish. For now, the Celebration Bowl stays as the de facto HBCU title game. And Grant doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.
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