There’s just one FCS game on the college football bowl calendar – and it should be a doozy as Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T duel in the Celebration Bowl on Saturday.
The Aggies (8-3) are coming off a second-place finish in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and are slight favorites for Saturday’s encounter with the Braves, who went 9-3 and won the Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
Celebration Bowl Odds and Betting Analysis
North Carolina A&T gets the nod from the oddsmakers despite coming up short in its quest to win the MEAC title and finishing with a mediocre 6-5 ATS record for the season. And bettors take note: four of the Aggies’ five non-covers came away from BB&T Stadium. Alcorn State, on the other hand, went 6-3 ATS in its nine lined games this past season, while six of its final seven victories of 2019 came by double digits.
The total for this one sits at 51.5, with neither team trending strongly in either direction based on recent results. Alcorn State has seen four of its previous seven games produce fewer than 50 points, while all five of its true road games in 2019 came in below that threshold. The Aggies saw six of their 11 regular-season games go over 50 points, including an even split of their six road games. Six of North Carolina A&T’s eight totaled games finished above the number.
No Carolina A&T v Alcorn St
Alcorn State Braves
While the Braves had little trouble putting points on the board – its 32.8 scoring average ranked fourth-best in the conference, thanks in no small part to its 42.7-percent third-down conversion rate – it’s the Alcorn State defence that made the biggest impact on the team’s fortunes in 2019. The Braves were the only SWAC team to hold opponents below 20 points per game for the season while snagging a conference-best 21 interceptions.
North Carolina A&T Aggies
The Aggies might have finished second in the MEAC standings to Florida A&M, but it was the class of the conference. North Carolina A&T led the pack in the majority of major statistical categories, including scoring offence (35.7), scoring defence (18.6), total offense (430.7 yards per game) and total defense (270.4).
Alcorn State vs. North Carolina A&T Prediction
Aggies 36, Braves 30.