Black college football has a permanent home in Atlanta. Since 2015, the Celebration Bowl has been played in the city, matching the champions of the MEAC and the SWAC in a game that functions as the de facto national championship for HBCU football.

The city's own rivalry

Atlanta also has a rivalry of its own: Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, both in the Atlanta University Center, play each other in a series that goes back generations. The game is as much a reunion as a contest, drawing alumni from across the country into the westside.

The bands are the show

At HBCU games the marching bands are a headline act, and the Battle of the Bands events around the games sell out on their own. For Atlanta, the pattern is the same as with the old Atlanta Football Classic, which drew crowds in the tens of thousands to the Georgia Dome for years: the game delivers a weekend of commerce, alumni travel and cultural programming to the city.