Hear me out on this.
SWACtion.
Pretty good, right?
The SWAC is an important, historic conference. I mean that. This is a serious paragraph. It’s one of the two HBCU leagues in Division I, meaning all its members are Historically Black Colleges and Universities, places of learning of large importance in American history. There are conflicting narratives about the SWAC’s health. Some argue that, similarly to the MEAC, the league’s future is in peril, with member schools struggling financially and the possibility of the MEAC crumbling leaving the SWAC potentially without its counterpart. Others point to the league’s high football attendance and noteworthy marching bands as evidence it’ll weather all foreseeable storms.
Regardless of where the SWAC goes from here, its tournament began a few minutes ago.
Prairie View A&M’s the team for NIT fans to watch. They won the SWAC last year as well, but failed to capture an automatic bid to the NIT, finding themselves relegated to the bad tournament instead. If the script’s going to be different this year, it’s unlikely it’ll happen tonight. Prairie View’s playing Alabama A&M in front of its own home crowd, with neutral-site games not until the semifinals on Friday (everyone gets a rest day and a travel day after the quarterfinals tonight—this isn’t some odyssey of a tournament like the Sun Belt’s). Still, three chances is a lot, so we might be getting to see quite the, uh, view of the Prairie these next few weeks, if you will.
Sorry, that was bad.
SWACtion, though. I think it’s got a ring to it.
