SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said the league would discuss the idea of eliminating divisions in football, but warned that the move comes with significant complications.
He speaks this week Regarding the league’s postseason structure, McClelland risked introducing the uncertainty of how many championship contenders would be determined while moving to a no-division format could offer scheduling flexibility.
“We have this agenda to talk about,” McClelland said. “If the membership decides you should go to no split, this schedule will work and we will put it in. But there are pros and cons.”
McClelland cited recent experiences in other conferences, particularly the Mountain West, where sectional elimination officials were forced to rely on computer rankings to match the championship game. It’s a situation SWAC wants to avoid, he said.
Talk about the issueOnline, however, centered around Alabama State, which fell to 10-2 with one conference loss but will not be in a championship game featuring Jackson State and Prairie in Saturday’s SWAC championship game.
The Hornets only loss in SWAC play was a four-point loss at Jackson State in October. Alabama State beat Parairie 31-28 weeks later, 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 neither team was going to be guaranteed a division,” he said. “It’s just not right. The only way to guarantee it is if every team plays every team from every team.”
The league’s current division setup, the top team from the SWAC East and SWAC West, automatically advances to the SWAC championship game — ensuring that the results are “determined on the field,” McClelland said.
Previously looked to remove partitions as part of partitions Eliminating the conference title game In 2017.
Eliminating divisions, he explained, can lead to uneven schedules, where a team can have a strong record without facing the conference’s toughest opponents.
“There’s always going to be an imbalance,” McClelland said. “You can have a team that doesn’t play the top three teams in the conference and still end up with a better record. That doesn’t mean they’re a better team.”
The commissioner made it clear that he did not want to be in a situation where tiebreakers, computer formulas, or even a coin flip, playing for the crown, were decided.
“The last thing I want to do in the conference office is flip a coin or use a matrix to determine who’s gone,” McClelland said. “The decision must be made on the field.”
As the dispute between SWAC members continues, McClelland stressed that any decision will be made collaboratively and will be handled with fairness as a guiding principle.
“That’s what it’s like to join the debate,” he said. “We’ll go through training, but I’ll be adamant that it always has to be decided on the field.”
