NC Central football has a Challenge for season opener

NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL ATHLETICS

North Carolina Central will open the 2025 season in Atlanta against Southern in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge. NCCU coach Trei Oliver (middle) is unbeaten in bowls, classics and challenge games

The MEAC needs a football comeback in 2025.

The conference has lost the last two Cricket Celebration Bowls, which crowns the HBCU national champion, and the last three MEAC-SWAC Challenges, which opens the HBCU season.

Whether it’s just a blip or something more serious remains to be seen, but the MEAC office should be doing the happy dance on its representative for this year’s Challenge, which celebrates its 20th season.

North Carolina Central will battle – and it WILL be a battle – Southern in Atlanta to kick off the season. Not only is the matchup everything a neutral fan could want, but NCCU coach Trei Oliver is undefeated in classics, bowls and challenge matchups.

• 2021 MEAC-SWAC Challenge: NCCU 24, Alcorn State 14

• 2022 Duke’s Mayo Classic: NCCU 28, N.C. A&T 13

• 2022 Celebration Bowl: NCCU 41, Jackson State 34 OT

•  2023 Circle City Classic: NCCU 45, Mississippi Valley State 3

• 2024 Orange Blossom Classic: NCCU 31, Alabama State 24

• 2024 Circle City Classic: NCCU 37, Norfolk State 10

The Eagles and Jaguars last met in 2006. NCCU won 27-20 at Southern as a – get this – Division II member of the CIAA.

That squad (11-1), coached by Rod Broadway, went undefeated in the conference and won its second straight CIAA Championship Game before leaving the conference to reclassify as a Division I institution. Broadway also left for Grambling State.

Despite the 19-year gap since then, Southern fans have not forgotten the loss if The Jaguar Journal podcast hosted by Perry White is any indication. White interviewed John T. Grant Jr., executive director of the MEAC-SWAC Challenge and Celebration Bowl, last month in an entertaining interview.

Grant sounded as excited as the rest of us about the game.

“This was a matchup sought out by both institutions,” he said.  “Coach (Trei) Oliver has some history at Southern, and we know how much both (sets of) fans love Atlanta.”

Oliver was a Southern assistant coach and later defensive coordinator from 2016-18 before being recruited away by former NCCU athletic director Ingrid Wicker-McCree.

Grant loves to remind everybody that the HBCU football season begins and ends in Atlanta.

The MEAC-SWAC Challenge “was struggling initially when we brought it here,” the North Carolina A&T alumnus said. “Having it here, Atlanta is a great destination. Everybody has friends and family here; we all do.”

Grant said the Challenge has been the most watched game in Week 0 over the last two years – not counting international games. This year should be even bigger since it was moved up a week to Aug. 23 and scheduled for prime time at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.

Grant said expect ESPN and sponsors to pull out all the stops to give fans the ultimate game experience. Over 20,000 fans are expected at the pregame bash from 3-7 p.m., followed by postgame activities until 1 a.m.

As White kept reiterating how pumped Southern fans were on revenge, Grant urged them on. 

“There should be no one in Baton Rouge but the police, and they’re there to guard the campus,” he said. “Everybody should be on the road to Atlanta and if you can’t come, turn (a TV) on.”

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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