Army-Navy! Celebration Bowl! And Whatever the Hell the Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk is.
Bowl season, baby.
Cricket Celebration Bowl: South Carolina State v Prairie View A&M
12:00 ET, 11:00 GTZ. ABC.
The de facto HBCU national championship! SC State won the bowl in 2021 and lost last year, while PVA&M has never made it before. The MEAC almost always wins. Look to SC State to make up for last year.
Army v Navy
3:30 ET, 2:30 GTZ. Navy -7, O/U 38.5.
A classic, and for good reason. Traditionally hosted in Philly, it's been bouncing around for the past few years, with this game in Baltimore for the first time since 2016. That edition saw Army break the 14 year run of naval supremacy. Since that streak, Army's taken six of the last nine. I'm a sucker for this game for the history and the tradition, but especially for the sick as hell custom uniforms. Last year's Bastogne nod and 2024's Rock of the Marne editions from Army were awesome. 2023's Naval "Silent Service" honors for the submariners was great as well.
This year? Meh, honestly. Both branches are celebrating their 250th anniversaries (yes, 1775. Lexington and Concord weren't exhibition games). They have plenty of references and nods (including Navy calling out the original six frigates and Army with an all-white marble look in honor of the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery), but they lose the iconic status of the more specific unit-focused uniforms of years past. It'll still be a banger of a game.
(Warning: 45/47 will probably be in attendance. Prepare accordingly.)
Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk: Boise State v Washington
8:00 ET, 7:00 GTZ. ABC. Wash -10, O/U 52.5
And now for something completely different! Jumping straight from the pomp and circumstance and honor and dedication of the American armed services to ... Rob Gronkowski and some sort of pre-workout supplement called Bucked Up. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I had never heard of it before! And ladies, don't feel left out! They have their own female-focused line of supplements called Babe by Bucked Up, including Babe Bikini and Babe Creatine.
