In case you were wondering which basketball jobs in the SWAC were the best and worst, a new survey puts that into perspective.
On Friday, the college basketball website Field of 68 ranked the SWAC jobs based on an anonymous survey of votes from the league’s 12 coaches to determine how schools supported their programs.
Texas Southern, coached by Johnny Jones, was rated as the most desirable job in the SWAC. Alabama State was No. 2, followed by Alabama A&M and Jackson State.
Coaches favored Texas Southern and Alabama State — SWAC teams that recently appeared in the NCAA Tournament — because of investment in resources.
“They care about athletics,” one coach said about Alabama State. Montgomery is one of the top five or six cities in the league. The president and AD are on the same page.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley rounded out the bottom five in the survey.
On Mississippi Valley State, which hasn’t experienced a winning season since 2012 and historically struggled to acquire resources to consistently compete at the Division I level, was viewed as one of the toughest jobs in the nation.
“No school support. I was told kids can’t keep all of their Pell Grant,” one coach said. “Awful city.”