In what could be a major power move for the SWAC, the HBCU league announced the formation of SWAC TV beginning this football season.
The streaming platform will be available on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google Play, and Android TV on August 1. While football and basketball will be a major part of the programming, SWAC TV plans to deliver athletic content across all 18 conference-sponsored sports on the free platform.
The SWAC also still has its broadcast deals with HBCU Go TV and ESPN.
โWe think itโs a gamechanger. It took us about three years to get here,โ SWAC commissioner Charles McClelland said during the SWAC Football Media Day in Birmingham. โYou canโt just haphazardly do these things. There is a lot that goes into creating your own network.โ
SWAC TV will make its live streaming debut with the week one kickoff of the 2025 football season on Saturday, Aug. 30. The tripleheader will feature Southern at Mississippi Valley State (4 pm CST), Langston vs. Grambling State (7 pm CST), and Texas Southern at Prairie View A&M (7 pm CST).
McClelland said SWAC TV has been three years in the making and that the league took its time to make sure it was right. The league looked around the landscape and found two conference networks to follow.
In addition to showing live games, the league will now be able to archive games from years past and feature behind-the-scenes footage from its sports programs.
โWe quite frankly stole a lot of operations plans from the Sun Belt and the SEC,โ McClelland said. โWe just want to be able to create a network that our games could be home, as well as archived. I think one of the significant things that is going to be a part of SWAC TV, outside of all the games that we are going to show, is the ability to archive.
โWe realize that on ESPN Plus, those games have around 30 days. We are looking for our games to be archived for a significant amount of time. As a matter of fact, part of our strategic plan is to get it right here on all of these platforms and then move to some form of free TV like Pluto TV to where we have our channel and then ultimately to some televised network on linear TV. We are going to need those archived games to show, to be able to go back to show the 1984 Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn game.
โSo the level of exposure we think itโs going to bring is going to be highly significant.โ
A total of 45 SWAC football games are scheduled to be streamed on the platform, culminating with the Turkey Day Classic, featuring Tuskegee at Alabama State on Nov. 27. McClelland says that with the addition of the SWAC TV broadcasts, fans will have a chance to see all of the football carried live this season.
โWhen you start getting down in the middle of the season, at the end of the season, nobody knows which one of those games is going to be most significant,โ McClelland said. โYou can guess, but now you donโt have to choose. You can see them all. Itโs just a matter of which platform.โ
In other SWAC news, the conference released its predicted order of finish with Jackson State picked to win the SWAC East and Southern selected to win the SWAC West again. Prairie View, which has a new coach in Tremaine Jackson, is picked third while Texas Southern came in fourth after finishing last season on a two-game winning streak.
The Panthers received 72 points and had one first-place vote and Texas Southern came in with 60 points.
The Preseason All-SWAC Football Teams have also been announced. Texas Southern got three players on the All-SWAC Second Team: Receiver Trenton Leary, defensive lineman Damarcus Thompson and punter Jeremy Ramirez. Running back Lamagea McDowell was the lone Prairie View player to receive All-SWAC Preseason recognition as a member of the second team.
Jackson, who is coming off finishing as the Division II national champion runner-up at Valdosta State and as the Division II Coach of the Year, was unfazed by where his team was picked in the SWAC West and by just having one player make the Preseason All-SWAC Team.
โI was hoping they picked us last. Iโve been on both sides of this thing,โ said Jackson, who spent the two previous years at Valdosta and was the head coach at Colorado Mesa for a year. โA year ago, I was picked number one and three years ago, we were picked fifth and ended up winning it.
โSo it really doesnโt matter. We care about the post at Prairie View A&M. We donโt really care about pre. All the pre stuff, we consider that being cute. Itโs kind of like looking at yourself in a suit in the mirror. Until you go to the actual event, you donโt really know what you look like.โ
The preseason poll and all conference teams are selected by the coaches and sports information directors.
| Date | Time (CST) | Matchup | Platform |
| Sat, Aug 30 | 4 p.m. | Southern at Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Aug 30 | 7 pm | Prairie View A&M at Texas Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Aug 30 | 7 pm | Langston vs. Grambling State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 6 | 6 pm | UT-Rio Grande Valley at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 13 | 2 pm | Tuskegee at Jackson State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 13 | 6 pm | Kentucky State at Grambling State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 13 | 6 pm | Lamar at Texas Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 13 | 6 pm | Lincoln at Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 13 | 6 pm | Albany State at Florida A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 20 | 6 pm | Lane at Alabama A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 20 | 6 pm | East Texas A&M at Grambling State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 20 | 6 pm | Northwestern State at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 27 | 2 pm | Alabama A&M at Bethune-Cookman | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 27 | 4 pm | Texas Southern at Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Sept 27 | 6 pm | Grambling State vs. Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 4 | 2 pm | Bethune-Cookman at Alabama State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 4 | 3 pm | Prairie View A&M at Alcorn State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 4 | 4 pm | Florida A&M at Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 4 | 6 pm | Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Texas Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 11 | 2 pm | Mississippi Valley State at Alabama A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 11 | 2 pm | Lincoln at Alcorn State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 11 | 2 pm | Southern at Bethune-Cookman | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 11 | 2 pm | Westgate at Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 18 | 2 pm | Grambling State at Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 18 | 2 pm | Virginia-Lynchburg at Texas Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 18 | 2 pm | Lincoln at Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 25 | 2 pm | Mississippi Valley State at Alcorn State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 25 | 2 pm | Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Bethune-Cookman | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 25 | 2 pm | Lincoln at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Oct 25 | 4 pm | Florida A&M at Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 1 | 2 pm | Mississippi Valley State at Bethune-Cookman | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 1 | 2 pm | Southern at Arkansas-Pine Bluff | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 1 | 2 pm | Alabama A&M at Grambling State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 1 | 2 pm | Alabama State at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 8 | 2 pm | Jackson State at Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 8 | 2 pm | Bethune-Cookman at Grambling State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 8 | 2 pm | Prairie View A&M at Alabama A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 8 | 2 pm | Texas Southern at Alabama State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 15 | 2 pm | Grambling State at Alcorn State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 15 | 2 pm | Florida A&M at Alabama A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 15 | 2 pm | Texas Southern at Southern | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 15 | 2 pm | Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 15 | 4 pm | Alabama State vs. Mississippi Valley State | SWAC TV |
| Sat, Nov 22 | 2 pm | Mississippi Valley State at Prairie View A&M | SWAC TV |
| Thurs, Nov 27 | 2 pm | Tuskegee at Alabama State | SWAC TV |
