SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said the league will discuss the idea of eliminating divisions in football — but warned that the move comes with significant complications.
Speaking this week about the league’s postseason structure, McClelland emphasized that while switching to a no-division format could offer scheduling flexibility, it would also risk introducing uncertainty into how championship participants are determined.
“We have that on our agenda to talk,” McClelland said. “If the membership decides to go to no divisions, we will work that schedule and put it out. But there are pros and cons.”
McClelland referenced recent experiences in other conferences, particularly the Mountain West, where eliminating divisions forced officials to rely on computer rankings to decide which teams qualified for the championship game. That, he said, is a situation the SWAC wants to avoid.
Conversation about the issue, much of it online, has centered around Alabama State, which went 10-2 with one conference loss, but will not participate in Saturday’s SWAC Championship Game that features Jackson State and Prairie View.
The Hornets only loss in SWAC play was a four-point defeat at Jackson State in October. Alabama State, however, did beat Prairie View 31-28 weeks later, which was the only loss for the Panthers against another conference opponent.
“I saw what happened when Alabama State lost to Jackson State, and people started asking if no divisions would guarantee the top two teams play,” he said. “That’s just not correct. The only way to guarantee that is if every team plays every other team.”
Under the league’s current divisional setup, the top team from the SWAC East and SWAC West automatically advances to the SWAC Championship Game — a system McClelland said ensures results are “determined on the field.”
The SWAC previously looked to eliminate divisions as part of eliminating the conference title game in 2017.
Removing divisions, he explained, could lead to uneven schedules, where a team might have a strong record without facing the conference’s toughest opponents.
“There’s always going to be an imbalance,” McClelland said. “You could have a team that didn’t play the top three teams in the conference and still finished with a better record. That doesn’t mean they were the better team.”
The commissioner made clear that he does not want to be in a position where tiebreakers, computer formulas, or even a coin flip decide who plays for the conference crown.
“The last thing I want to do in the conference office is flip a coin or use a matrix to determine who goes,” McClelland said. “It should be decided on the field.”
While the discussion over divisions will continue among SWAC members, McClelland stressed that any decision will be made collaboratively — and with fairness as the guiding principle.
“That’s for the membership to debate,” he said. “We’ll go through the exercise, but I will stand firm that this should always be settled on the field.”