Charles McClelland has certainly come in and run the Southwestern Athletic Conference his way, to the delight of his supporters and the dismay of some critics.
One undeniable fact about the SWAC commissioner (who is also the chairman of the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, which is important) is that he acts decisively and directly, and he generally has the support of the league membership.
It was no surprise when, without prompting at the conference’s football media day on Tuesday, McClelland announced that the SWAC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would be taking their talents to Atlanta, beginning with the upcoming 2024-25 season. The move is designed to make the tournament about more than just the games themselves.
“We’re going to make this into the event that our fans have told us they want it to be,” McClelland told HBCU Sports Publisher Kenn Rashad. “We’re moving the tournament to the Gateway Center, which is where the WNBA’s Dream and the G League team (the College Park Skyhawks) plays. It’s a professional arena, the right size for us, and we’ll get those six hotels. You check in; you won’t even have to rent a car – you can walk to the arena.”
Along with concerts and day parties, the SWAC tournament is looking to position itself as one of HBCU athletics’ premier events, along with two other Atlanta-based events, the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge and the Cricket Celebration Bowl.
There stands to be a complication or two in the plan, however. Along with the change of venue and location, the SWAC will have all 12 teams participating in the conference tournament beginning with the 2025-26 season, up from the long-standing tradition of the top eight seeds making it.
Selling the SWAC tournament vision to everybody
That leads to questions and concerns about travel and logistics for the western contingent of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. From Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Houston, Texas, Baton Rouge, and Grambling, Louisiana, it is a fair country drive—or flight—to the new Black capital of the United States.
This is where McClelland’s vision will need to be clear as day. It appears that the vision consists of the conference tournament being successful enough to limit travel concerns. The potential exists for this to happen.
One important key is that plenty of SWAC schools—most notably Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman, Grambling, Southern, and both Texas and Alabama schools—have sizeable alumni bases in the metro Atlanta area. They’ll need to be consistent and in lockstep with each other to help entice their classmates from different areas of the country to make that trip.
Another step is bringing in the surrounding community who may not have ties to the SWAC. If there’s anything we’ve learned about the last few Celebration Bowls and their solid attendance numbers, Black folks love to be wherever the party is. If you get to see some good athletic competition in the process, even better.
While the SWAC tournament moving to a traditional southeastern location might have short-term concerns, the potential long-term gains of this Atlanta experiment are what’s best for business in an ever-changing college sports landscape.
