SWAC names athletic director McClelland commissioner
As a toddler in Mississippi, Charles McClelland sat in the stands with his parents wishing he could be close enough to touch one of Jackson State’s football players.
Almost four decades later, McClelland will now oversee Jackson State and nine other schools after being named the new commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference on Monday.
“I felt like I had done just about all I could do and it was time to transition to the next challenge,” McClelland said. “It’s just an opportunity that was too great to pass up, and if I could influence (the SWAC) in any positive way, that would be a fulfillment of my lifelong dream.”
McClelland, 46, spent the last 10 years as Texas Southern’s vice president of intercollegiate athletics. There, he played a role in finalizing a deal with the Dynamo to share the then newly constructed BBVA Compass Stadium with TSU football. Under his oversight, the school’s student athletes saw steady improvements in their academic progress and graduation success rates, according to the school.
“I want to publicly thank Dr. McClelland for his hard work and many accomplishments at TSU,” Texas Southern president Austin Lane said in a press release. “I served on the SWAC commissioner hiring committee, so this was naturally a tough decision. We hate to lose him, but he is really committed to taking the SWAC to the next level.”
In June, McClelland denied reports linking him to the SWAC job, suggesting they were “erroneous” and premature.
At that point, he had discussed the job with the presidents of various SWAC schools, developing greater interest through those conversations and ultimately interviewing for the role—which opened up at the end of interim commissioner Edgar Gantt’s term on Dec. 31, 2017.
“Had that erroneous report not come out, it would not have seemed like it took so long for this to get done,” McClelland said. “I think the Council of Presidents had July 1 as a target date and we’re in the (second) week of August, so the process went relatively smooth, it just
took time to go through the process, negotiate and get all the documentation together.”
McClelland signed a three-year contract with the league, whose history appealed to him just as much as his family history with the conference.
“SWAC is a wonderful opportunity. It’s a historic conference; it goes back from when it was founded in 1920,” he said. “Willis Reed in basketball; Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Doug Williams in football; and Rickie Weeks in baseball. You really could go on and on.”
Kevin Granger, TSU’s assistant athletic director, was named interim athletic director as the university conducts a national search for McClelland’s replacement. Granger, a former TSU basketball standout, and McClelland both have sons on the Tigers’ basketball team.
But for McClelland, the SWAC connections run even deeper.
“I grew up in the Southwestern Athletic Conference,” he said. “My mother and father met at Alcorn State, so if it wasn’t for Alcorn, I wouldn’t be born. I went to Prairie View, both of my sons go to Texas Southern University, my sister went to Southern, my wife went to Grambling. If it wasn’t for SWAC, I wouldn’t be where I am.”