North Carolina Central's head football coach Trei Oliver reaffirms his disbelief in a MEAC championship game. The 8-2 Eagles are facing their season's mortality after a surprising 50-20 loss to the Howard Bison.

Howard has the chance to win the conference with a victory over Morgan State on Nov. 18. Despite their stellar overall record, North Carolina Central is tied with the Bison with a 3-1 in conference record.

“People have asked me [thousands of] times, ‘Do we need a conference championship game,'” Oliver said in a quote obtained by HBCU Sports. “No, we do not… We don't want to be a one-and-done team wherever we play. We want to represent our program and our conference well.”

On the other hand, Howard head coach Larry Scott asserted his belief in a championship game, much like other conferences.

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“Just like many other sports,” he said. “Let's take another week off. Another two weeks. Let's tee it off. Let's have a championship game.”

Between the two Division I HBCU conferences only the SWAC has a conference championship game, which started in 1999. The winner of the SWAC Championship and the team in the MEAC with the best in-conference record faces off in the Celebration Bowl to determine a “Black College National Champion”.  North Carolina Central won the Bowl last season, but their title defense is in jeopardy if Howard wins the conference.

The Eagles are heaping all their hope onto the Morgan State Bears as they face Howard University on Saturday, despite their own upcoming match against the Delaware State Hornets. The Bears are 4-5 and are coming off a 20-17 win against South Carolina State.

In fact, the Bears are on a three-game win streak, with victories over South Carolina State, Delaware State, and Norfolk State. Morgan State played Howard at the end of the 2022 season as well, though they lost 35-6.