Report: SWAC football championship, basketball tourney returning to Birmingham

The SWAC football championship game and basketball tournament are returning to Birmingham, Ala. for at least one year, according to AL.com.

Citing sources from the mayor’s office in the report, the football game will be played at Legion Field on Dec. 1 and the basketball tournament will be held at Bill Harris Arena at the Birmingham Crossplex on March 13-16.

The SWAC championship game was introduced in 1999 and was played at Legion Field for 14 years before moving to Houston’s NRG Stadium in 2013.

Last year the conference announced that the 2017 championship game would be its last, stating that the conference’s presidents and chancellors wanted to focus on building the Celebration Bowl, a game that is owned and operated by ESPN Events and features the regular season champions of the MEAC and SWAC. However, reports later revealed that the championship game ended due to financial reasons.

The conference is expected to make a formal announcement Thursday during the league’s annual football media day in Birmingham at the Birmingham-Marriott Hotel.