Heritage Bowl

The Heritage Bowl is a defunct NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) bowl game pitting a team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) against a team from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). It was hoped that it would become a true national championship game for historically black universities, but sometimes the conference champions declined the automatic bowl bid in order to participate in the NCAA's then-Division I-AA playoffs instead. This was an especially common issue for the MEAC, often leaving its runner-up to represent the conference in the bowl. Perhaps not coincidentally, the SWAC won most of the Heritage Bowls that were held. The game was played in Miami, Florida, in 1991; Tallahassee, Florida, in 1993; and Atlanta, Georgia, from 1994–1999. The Heritage Bowl was a successor to the Pelican Bowl, which pitted MEAC versus SWAC teams during the 1970s.