There have been rumblings for several months now that the SWAC was ready to put the hammer down on tightening reins on non-conference football scheduling.
It was getting ridiculous, with some schools scheduling teams that felt like a stretch to even consider a college program.
Something had to give if the SWAC wanted to continue being taken seriously as a reputable FCS conference.
It turns out the SWAC athletic directors voted during the recent winter meetings to no longer allow members to play opponents below the Division II level starting in 2027. No more NAIA, Division III, or glorified traveling teams.
SWAC Commission Dr. Charles McClelland let the results and future intent of the HBCU league out of the bag during an interview with SWAC TV at last week’s SWAC Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships.
The NCAA long ago stopped counting these games against Division III, NAIA, and NCCAA opponents. SWAC programs had loaded up on these “guarantee games” primarily during Homecoming, when alumni want to celebrate a win.
But now the SWAC wants to enhance the fan experience and ramp up the competition across the board.
“No longer are we going to play games that don’t count,” McClelland said during the SWAC TV interview.
The SWAC, especially now that its footprint is growing abundantly in the digital space with programs like SWAC TV, wants to be seen as a conference that plays the best competition available. So, all the ADs voted in favor.
“I voted for it, as well,” Texas Southern interim athletic director Dr. Paula Jackson said to the Defender. “It helps with our strength of schedule, which was talked about in the meetings. That was the biggest thing, and everybody agreed.”
Until it wasn’t a good thing, scheduling below-level programs was perfectly acceptable.
Both Texas Southern and Prairie View have been guilty of playing these so-called “guarantee games.” PV and TSU, however, got out in front of this and have eliminated those games, replacing them with more competitive opponents.
“I can’t speak on everybody else,” said Prairie View athletic director Anton Goff, who has beefed up the football schedule with Tarlton State and Stephen F. Austin, finished last season ranked sixth and seventh, respectively in FCS, and will play Alcorn State for Homecoming on Oct. 17. “We made a decision that we aren’t going to play anybody that’s not a Division I. We are trying to build an elite FCS program, and to build an elite FCS program, we have to play other FCS programs.”
Just last week, Prairie View coach Tremaine Jackson and I were talking about scheduling, and he was proud of how he and Goff have worked to improve the strength of schedule, while wishing all of the SWAC schools would follow suit.
Naturally, he supports the competition stipulation.
“The league is five years behind,” Jackson said to me after Friday night’s Annual Purple and Gold Spring Game. “The league should have did that five years ago. You want to always be reputable. I get mad when I see things about rankings of FCS conferences, and we’re tenth of 13. I think we have something to do with that. I’m not knocking anybody, we’ve just got to make sure we are always putting ourselves on the cutting edge and not just doing what we’ve always done.
“If we are a Division I conference, we should play Division I people. It just is what it is. When I was in Division II, we played Division II people.”
Just last winter, Prairie View found itself in a pickle when North American University, right here on some corner in Stafford, suddenly decided to disband its NAIA football program, causing PV athletic director Anton Goff to act quickly to find the Lincoln Oaklanders – an independent traveling team – to take last season’s Homecoming slot on Oct. 25.
The Panthers, of course, smashed the all-time 3-47 Oaklanders of Oakland, Calif., 38-0 to keep the Homecoming festivities festive.
When reminded of PV’s recent football scheduling history, Goff explained that he had no choice.
“We played Lincoln because we had a last-minute spot open,” Goff said. “We had a hole in the middle of our schedule, and everybody else was playing conference games. You couldn’t schedule anyone but a non-Division I at that point.”
TSU has routinely played a gimme once a year, but it was partly to appease the alumni base and students who wanted Homecoming played on campus, but now apparently aren’t as pleased with the quality of opponents like Virginia University Lynchburg, of NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) ilk.
TSU, of course, now shares Shell Energy Stadium in Downtown and plays its conference games there because the SWAC will not sanction games at Durley Stadium on campus.
But TSU got out in front of the SWAC’s competition changes, scheduling conference foe Mississippi Valley State as the Oct. 10th Homecoming opponent at Shell Energy Stadium on a schedule that still hasn’t officially been released.
Homecomings on campus are a thing of the past, but with one small caveat.
“We just make the adjustment,” Jackson said. “We have been going to Shell Energy Stadium and other stadiums for quite some time now. We just make that adjustment and tell everybody this is where we are going to be playing these games, and keep going on with it.
“This may help with getting our stadiums back on campus, too.”
Did you catch that? I did.
So, naturally, I followed up to ask whether discussions are currently underway to build a football stadium on campus.
“Eventually,” Jackson said without making any promises of when. “It was a discussion prior to my coming, so it’s been an ongoing conversation. This, of course, won’t be a contributing factor. This is something that just came up within the conference. But every little thing helps to be able to move that conversation forward.”
