SWAC football championship game is officially a 4-team playoff

“It doesn’t get any better than this.”

It’s a sports cliché that’s been repeated many times in the past, and will likely be used many times in the future, but for this particular case, it’s appropriate.

Alcorn State, Jackson State, Grambling State, and Southern University are the four remaining teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference still eligible to win a league championship and secure a spot in the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 15.

And as luck would have it, the SWAC’s four most storied football programs have positioned themselves to compete in regular season finales against arch-rivals that are literally ‘win or go home’ situations.

Alcorn State (7-3, 5-1 SWAC) will host rival Jackson State (5-4, 4-2 SWAC) in a game that will determine the SWAC East divisional champion Saturday at Jack Spinks Stadium in Lorman, Miss.

Grambling State (6-4, 4-2 SWAC) will face Southern (6-3, 5-1 SWAC) in a contest that will declare the SWAC West divisional champion on Nov. 24 in the annual Bayou Classic at the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

The winner of each game will advance to the SWAC championship game to be played Dec. 1 on the campus of the “SWAC institution with the highest ranking.”