College football’s overall champion won’t be decided until Jan. 9 in Tampa with the University of Alabama, Clemson University, the University of Washington and Ohio State University the contenders.

The crowning of an HBCU football champ comes much sooner.

North Carolina Central University and Grambling State University of Louisiana  meet in a noon kickoff Saturday, Dec. 17, at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome in the second Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl. The game will be televised on ABC.

At stake is the Black Colleges National Football Championship.

NCCU, 9-2, earned a ticket to Atlanta as MEAC champion.

Grambling, 11-1, took top honors in SWAC.

MEAC and SWAC are the only HBCU conferences with NCAA Division I (Football Championship Subdivision) status.

The only other Division I HBCU is Tennessee State University of the Ohio Valley Conference. TSU was 7-4 this season.

Richmond area fans will have a “hometown rooting interest” while viewing the Celebration Bowl. NCCU’s senior quarterback is native Richmonder Malcolm Bell, a former Henrico High School star.

The mobile Bell passed for 16 touchdowns and ran for nine more this season for the Eagles.

Grambling also boasts a standout quarterback in junior Devante Kincade, a transfer from the University of Mississippi. Earning SWAC Offensive Player of the Year honors, the Dallas native passed for 29 touchdowns and ran for six more.

Grambling ranks with the most storied programs of all time, starting with its former coach. The late Eddie Robinson coached Grambling from 1941 to 1997, compiling a record of 408-165-15.

Coach Robinson developed four NFL Hall of Fame selections — Willie Brown, Buck Buchanan, Willie Davis and Charlie Joiner.

Other Grambling alumni include James Harris, the first African-American NFL starting quarterback (1969 in Buffalo), and Doug Williams, the first African-American quarterback on a winning Super Bowl team (1988 with Washington). 

In all, some 107 Grambling athletes have played in the NFL.

NCCU has been in and out, and in and back out of the CIAA during its athletic history.

Formerly known as North Carolina College for Negroes, NCCU first joined the CIAA in 1924. That was 12 years after the CIAA was founded. It is the oldest African-American athletic conference in the nation.

NCCU left the CIAA to join MEAC in 1970, returned to the CIAA in 1980 and left a second time in 2007.

A few NCCU football notables:

NCCU is the alma mater of offensive guard Doug Wilkerson, who played 14 NFL seasons with the San Diego Chargers and is a member of the Chargers’ Hall of Fame.

Richard Sligh, NCCU Class of 1967, played for the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II. At 7 feet, Sligh is the tallest player in NFL history.

John Baker played 10 NFL seasons as defensive end and is famous for a ferocious hit in 1964 that left New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle bloodied and helmetless. Baker was with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the time. The Tittle photo was the Associated Press Sports Photo of the Year for 1964.

Henry Lattimore coached NCCU football from 1979 to 1990, won 72 games and was among the first in the CIAA to install a wide-open passing attack. Coach Lattimore later coached at Virginia Union University in 1993 and 1994.

Under Coach Lattimore, quarterback Earl Harvey broke 15 NCAA Division II career records, including 690 completions, 10,621 passing yards and 86 touchdowns from 1985 through 1988.