Red Carpet Bowl supporters asked for it and now they will get it.

Warren Central will open the 2007 football season against national power South Panola at Viking Stadium. That game will be preceded by Vicksburg High’s matchup with Class 4A super power Clarksdale.

The following year, the same teams will participate in the RCB with South Panola playing Vicksburg and Clarksdale playing Warren Central, RCB committee chairman Ricky Mitchell said.

&#8220It is huge to get these two teams,” said Mitchell, entering his third year as RCB chairman. &#8220These two teams have been some of the finest in the state year-in and year-out.

&#8220Having them in the Red Carpet Bowl against our local teams will be a tremendous benefit for our football teams and our fans.”

For the past two seasons, the RCB has hosted Indianola-Gentry and Memphis-Kirby. Both were near guaranteed wins for VHS and WC, but attendance was dwindling because neither of the two opponents’ traveled very well.

With South Panola and Clarksdale, Mitchell is already worrying about extra bleachers.

&#8220I think both sides of the stadium will be filled to capacity for both games,” Mitchell said. &#8220We’ve already talked with (Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendant) Dr. (James) Price about getting some portable bleachers to put in. We expect this to be at capacity and then some.”

South Panola is riding a state-record 55-game winning streak heading into Friday’s game against Grenada. If the three-time defending Class 5A state champions run the table the rest of this season, they will enter the RCB with a 60-game winning streak.

While South Panola is the talk of the last several years, Clarksdale will enter the RCB with nearly as impressive a resume.

The Wildcats won state championships in 1997, 98 and 2001. They finished runnerup in 1986, 1999 and 2000. CHS is currently ranked No. 1 in Class 4A with their only loss coming in the first week of the season, a 19-13 setback to South Panola.

Mitchell said during August’s RCB that his mission was to get bigger, quality teams in the showcase event, which will be celebrating its 45th anniversary next season.

Many teams are leary of signing two-year contracts because of not wanting to give up a guaranteed home gate. But Clarksdale and South Panola had been opening up their seasons against one another and were happy to oblige.

Team selection committee chairman Briggs Hopson III then broached VHS coach Alonzo Stevens and WC’s Curtis Brewer and received commitments from both of them.

&#8220When he called me with the news, I said, ‘you da man,’” Mitchell said of Hopson. &#8220… He has the toughest job of any committee member. It’s a credit to have him be able to devote all that time away from his work to this.”

Red Carpet Bowl committee members are strictly volunteers. Hopson and found it tougher and tougher to land teams for two-year commitments.

In the past, teams from Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana have played in the RCB.

The RCB used to be a postseason bowl game, but after the Mississippi High School Activities Association devised the current playoff schedule, it evolved into a showcase in the first weekend of the football season.

In August, Warren Central clobbered Memphis-Kirby 37-0 and Vicksburg defeated Gentry 42-20.