Outlook good, says SWAC head
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The financial picture of the Southwestern Athletic Conference may not be publicly detailed in numbers, but the league’s commissioner said Thursday that the premier historically Black collegiate association has a bright future ahead amid changes in conference alignments.
The 12-school SWAC, which includes the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, ranks among the top two NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conferences in revenue, commissioner Charles McClelland told attendees at SWAC Media Day. McClelland, a former Texas Southern University athletic director, did not state a dollar figure for the conference, but he added it’s projected the SWAC will surpass three Football Bowl Subdivision conferences in revenue by 2030.
“Ultimately, we want to be a top-10 conference,” McClelland said. “The Southwestern Athletic Conference has a lot of opportunity to grow financially, and if we do all the things we need to do, just based upon current budgets and trajectory, we feel we can be in that upper echelon as far as revenue is concerned.”
The conference has an ongoing media partnership with ESPN, whose events department organizes the season-opening MEAC/SWAC Challenge and season-ending Celebration Bowl, which pits the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and SWAC champions against each other.
The SWAC’s relationship with ESPN has helped “tremendously,” according to McClelland.
“ESPN started showing SWAC when it really wasn’t that popular to show SWAC,” he said. “They’ve helped us to grow. They’ve been a magnificent partner. I have nothing but great things to say about ESPN, and I’m looking forward to a
long and fruitful relationship with them.”
The Championship Subdivision includes 14 conferences including the SWAC and conducts the NCAA Division I football playoffs. The higher Bowl Subdivision has 10 conferences including the Southeastern Conference, and the top four teams are selected to the College Football Playoff, which is not organized by the NCAA.
The SWAC expanded by two teams last year, when Bethune-Cookman University and Florida A&M University left the MEAC to join. Despite seismic changes in major-college conferences, like longtime Big 12 rivals University of Oklahoma and University of Texas moving into the SEC by 2025, McClelland did not reveal any known membership changes ahead for the SWAC.
He did say the SWAC would remain proactive and not be reactionary in issues potentially involving expansion.
“Continue to stay abreast of what’s going on. Continue to be nimble and move and just keeping your head on a swivel,” McClelland said. “I don’t know if there is a 1-2-3-4 [steps] because the landscape is changing, but just to understand the landscape and move appropriately within the landscape.”
The attraction of former NFL coaches and players including Jackson State University’s Deion Sanders, who has taken a philanthropic approach to helping his program with resources, has boosted the SWAC’s popularity as well.
“These coaches around the outside of this corridor can coach their butts off, and the players can really play,” said Sanders, going into his third year as the Tigers’ head coach and coming off a SWAC championship. “They just need the exposure and the resources to do better. It’s better; I didn’t expect it to be less, but these guys are really darn good.”
Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson, an offensive coordinator at Tennessee State University last year, is one of four SWAC coaches new to their programs in 2022. The others are Prairie View A&M University’s Bubba McDowell, Southern University’s Eric Dooley and Alabama State University’s Eddie Robinson Jr.