 |
| (Dominique Monday/HBCU Gameday photo) |
It may be college basketball season according to the calendar, but in SWAC country it’s always football season. Right now it’s football schedule season as teams are revealing who they’ll play in the 2017 season.
In recent years its been a simple processes thanks to the SWAC’s nine-game conference mandate which required each of the conference’s ten schools to play each other. That’s not the case this year, however, as teams are adjusting to a new seven-game mandate that gives them more flexibility.
The move was made to allow teams more opportunities to play money games against the FBS, non-conference against other FCS schools, or play a D2 or NAIA school. The move could hurt some of the smaller schools in the conference, who benefit financially from playing teams with big followings such as Southern and Jackson State.
The SWAC, however, has not been transparent on how it decides which teams will play on a year-to-year basis. The Montgomery Advertiser’s request to talk to commissioner Duer Sharp has apparently gone unanswered for over a week.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for the SWAC’s response/explanation.