A college football season tradition is leaving the Capital City.
) - A college football season tradition is leaving the Capital City. The FCS Kickoff Classic will no longer be played at Montgomery ’s Cramton Bowl . The game has been a staple of the college football calendar since 2014.
It called Montgomery home from 2017 to 2025 thanks to the late Johnny Williams, the game’s former executive director. “Now that week zero is no longer what week zero used to be, there is a lot of other kickoff games, and on top of that it became increasingly harder to find regional teams to come play,” said Clay Norell, who served as executive director of the FCS Kickoff Classic. The ESPN-featured game showcased two teams from the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, with exceptions in 2020 and 2025, when no Alabama schools were on the field. “When you’re bringing in a team from California, not a whole lotta fans are going to travel. This year I think a team from Texas, again, not exactly a close drive,” Norell said.“I think for ESPN, as a company, we were still providing a competitive football game. Really great programming and content that are TV viewership was still where it should be and needed to be, but our in-person attendance wasn’t, exactly,” Norell said. According to officials, the best-attended game in the years played at Cramton Bowl was 2018, with 13,500 people. Since then, attendance numbers have dipped below 6,000, with 2020 being a record low of just 2,000. Norell still leads the Red Tails Classic and the Salute to Veterans Bowl, and said both games will remain at Cramton Bowl. “From our staff’s point of view, locally, taking it away, hate to see it ago but I think it’s been not replaced but having the Red Tails Classic now in place is something I wanna say is maybe more meaningful and impactful in a local and regional way,” Norell said.Montgomery firefighters respond to early morning house fireAJ McCarron wins coaching debut, Birmingham Stallions atop UFL after Week 1Selma community honors Coach Willie Maxey with key to the city
WFSA Alabama Montgomery Cramton Bowl Football FCS Kickoff Classic NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision NCAA ESPN Clay Norell
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