Scarni's Scrolls: Let's Go Bowling

On the field, Saturday's Celebration Bowl matches SWAC champion Florida A&M against MEAC champion Howard (noon, ABC).

In the broadcast booth, the Black colleges championship game pits FAMU alum Tiffany Greene vs. Howard alum Jay "Sky" Walker.

The ESPN announcers have called FAMU games and Howard games together, but never a contest between their alma maters.

"Don’t put us down there with FAMU,” said Walker, who quarterbacked the 1993 Bison to a 11-0 season told The Grio.“I don’t even know if FAMU is the official HBCU for the state of Florida. I know Howard is America’s Black college. It’s Howard and everybody else

.”"It’s a real thing,” said Greene, the first Black woman to call college football on a national level. “We really do go back and forth. We just got off a coaches’ call and we’re still at it. He usually has the ‘shots fired’ approach, always throwing it out there. Sometimes I take the bait.”

MEAC and SWAC teams traditionally kick off the season against each other, but it took some time to convince everyone that a bowl game between conference champions would be more significant than competing in the FCS playoffs.Celebration Bowl participants end the seasons on national TV, in Atlanta’s NFL stadium with more than 40,000 fans in attendance.

The MEAC leads the bowl series 6-1, but FAMU (11-1), No. 5 in the Coaches FCS Poll, is a 7-point favorite to beat the Bison (6-5).

***Bowl season is here.

 There are 41 games between Saturday and New Year's Day, starting with six on opening day.

■ Myrtle Beach: Georgia Southern (6-6) vs. Ohio (9-3), 11 a.m., ESPN. Ranked No. 28 bowl by "USA Today.

"■ New Orleans: Jacksonville St (8-4) vs. Louisiana (6-6), 2:15, ESPN. No. 24

.■ Cure: Miami of Ohio (11-2) vs. Appalachian St. (8-5), 3:30, ABC. No. 20

.■ New Mexico: New Mexico St. (10-4) vs. Fresno St. (8-4), 5:45, ESPN. No.18

■ L.A.: UCLA (7-5) vs. Boise St. (8-5), 7:30, ABC. No. 22■ Independence: Cal (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (6-6), 9:15, ESPN. No. 36.

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More college football

FCS Final Four

■ No. 5 Albany at No. 2 South Dakota St., Friday, 7, ESPN2

■ North Dakota St. at No. 2 Montana, Saturday, 4:30, ESPN2

Div. II Championship

■ Colorado School of Mines vs. Harding, Saturday, 1, ESPNU

Div. III Championship

■ North Central vs. Cortland, 7 p.m., ESPNU

***

What the NFL owners did and didn't do at their meetings this week:

■ Awarded the 2027 Super Bowl to Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium for the second time in five years. Three of the next four Super Bowls will be played in the Pacific time zone... Las Vegas (2024), New Orleans (2025), San Francisco (2026), L.A.

■ Expanded international play, beginning with a game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2024... It will play up to eight international games a season, beginning in 2025.

■ There was no vote on Tom Brady’s bid to purchase a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders.

■ Owners were presented with the latest data on injury rates tied to artificial and grass fields, but the league is still working on a final assessment.

■ Rules-related issues-- including kickoffs, hip-drop tackles and the so-called Tush Push -- were discussed, but votes to amend the rule book will have to wait until the next owners meeting in March.

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"Time" headline: "An Explosion in Sports Betting Is Driving Gambling Addiction Among College Students."

The magazine cited the legalization of sports betting and the booming popularity of the industry as one of the main growing industry as one of the main growing addiction issues for college students.

“We used to think the problem gambler was a little old lady at the slot machine,” Diana Goode, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, told Time. “Now, it's the 20-something male betting on sports. That is the new demographic of the problem gambler. And I would say 40% of our calls are from that demographic or about that demographic. Because it's not just these kids (referring to 20-something-year-olds) that are calling, it's their parents

.According to a University of Buffalo study cited in the article, one in 10 college students is a pathological gambler, which is far double the 5% that is estimated for the population of the United States

.In a different survey conducted by the NCAA, nearly 60% of young adults aged 18-22 have gambled on sports, but only 4% wager on sports every day.

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There's a new trend in sports arenas and stadiums: rich franchise owners plan to build huge entertainment complexes near their teams to capitalize on the momentum of a sporting events with other entertainment.

■ Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, announced a deal to move both the NBA and NHL teams to Alexandria, Va., in the heart of a proposed $2 billion, 12-acre entertainment complex.

■ Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban plans to build a new Mavs arena in the middle of a resort and casino after making a deal to sell his majority stake in the team to casino mogul Miriam Adelson.

■ New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, along with Hard Rock International, proposed an $8 billion entertainment complex and casino to be built next to Citi Field.

■ Tampa Bay owner Stuart Sternberg announced an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County for a new ballpark in downtown St. Petersburg, to be constructed as part of the redevelopment of the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District that includes residential units, commercial and retail space, a concert venue.

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ETC.

■ TMG's Mark Blaudshun finished with a superb 43-41 record on his regular-season college football picks. Anything over .500 is considered a success. Good job.

■ Conspiracy theory: NBC deprived Al Michaels of a NFL playoff game because he made light of Taylor Swift.

■ The Tony Bruno Radio Network continues to expand its schedule. Highlight: "The Defo and Lubie Show" (10 a.m.-noon). Colorful guests. Humor, singing, betting.

■ Welcome to the real world, University of Texas. The Longhorns' initial SEC football schedule has them playing Oklahoma and Georgia back-to-back. The Georgia home game is the same Oct. 18-20 weekend as the Austin Grand Prix, so good luck, Bulldogs fans, trying to find a hotel room.

■ Three men's college basketball games to watch: No. 5 UConn at No. 10 Gonzaga, Friday, 10, ESPN2... No. 1 Arizona at No. 3 Purdue, Saturday, 4:30, Peacock... No. 9 North Carolina at No. 14 Kentucky, Saturday, 5:30, CBS.

■ Six jerseys worn by Lionel Messi during Argentina’s winning run at last year's World Cup sold Thursday for $7.8 million at Sotheby’s.

■ Bryce Bennett won the downhill Thursday in Val Gardena, Italy, the first World Cup victory by a U.S. male Alpine skier in two years.

■ Major League Baseball announced the creation of "Spring Breakout," a four-day series of exhibition games in which an organization’s top prospects will participate in Spring Training contests against the best minor league talents of other teams. Next year’s event will take place between March 14 and 17.

■ University of Colorado is introducing a new elective course named after football coach Deion Sanders. The class, CMCI 4021: Prime Time Public Performance and Leadership, will be offered through the school’s College of Media, Communication and Information.

■ The Texas Rangers created a job posting for a Trophy Transport Coordinator.

***

■ Brothers Greg and John Franklin captured "The Amazing Race" on Wednesday, becoming the first Black men to win.

■ Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth year in a row.

■ Anthony Anderson will host the delayed Emmy Awards on Jan. 15 (Fox).

■ "Barbie" is streaming on Max... "Reacher" Season 2 debuts on Amazon.

■ Dwayne Johnson will play MMA fighter Mark Kerr in a A24 biopic from Benny Safdie.

■ Peacock ordered "Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist" starring Kevin Hart, the story of the armed robbery orchestrated around Muhammad Ali's 1970 comeback fight in Atlanta.

■ Greta Gerwig is the first American woman director to serve as the president of the jury for the 2024 Cannes International Film Festival.

■ Subway is selling a footlong chocolate-chip cookie.

■ Global Art Market cooling? Not really. Philip Guston's 1979 "Painter at Night" sold for $20 million at Art Basel.

■ Jezebel, the women's-focused website that shut down last month, is back under new management, Paste.

■ Happy 34th Birthday, Taylor Swift.

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THEY SAID IT

■ "We wanted that so bad we had that underdog mentality... and that's what you saw tonight." -- Texas's Emma Halter after the Longhorns defeated Wisconsin Thursday to reach the NCAA Volleyball title match against Nebraska. (Sunday, 3 p.m., ABC).

■ "You've got to know what your team wants from you. And don't think that you have to turn the franchise around in one year." -- Anthony Davis's advice to Victor Wembanyama.

■ "Yeah, I'm getting ready for Kansas City." -- Bill Belichick on reports he will no longer be coaching the Patriots next season.

■ "If we won a game, I'd let someone hit me in the face with a frying pan." -- UNC coach Mack Brown, who agreed to participate in the Duke's Mayo Bowl post-game shower.

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Jim Sarni, BC Class of '69, is a former sportswriter for The Boston Globe and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He resides in Fort Lauderdale and watches a lot of television. If you have a comment or an opinion, we'd love to hear from you Jksarni@aol.com