With just three months remaining until the college football season begins, and suffering from a lot of relevant content to produce aside from which players have been placed on watch lists by organizations we’ve never heard of, our play cousins over at The Sports Network decided to rank all the FCS conferences from first to worst.
It comes as no surprise that the SWAC and MEAC find themselves near the bottom of these prestigious rankings.
The MEAC, featuring strong programs like Bethune-Cookman and South Carolina State, were ranked No. 10.
Here is what the Sports Network said about that conference
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (11 programs) – Bethune-Cookman and South Carolina State both made the playoffs last season and figure to battle it out for the MEAC title again, but they lost some key talent. There’s been plenty of head coaching changes in recent years, so some programs are still steadying themselves. North Carolina A&T is primed for a strong season. Florida A&M and Savannah State received NCAA postseason bans for poor Academic Progress Rate scores.
Sandwiched between the MEAC and the Northeast Conference is the SWAC, which comes in at No. 12.
TSN cites such transgressions as Academic Progress Rate penalties, coaching changes and postseason ban for the SWAC’s positioning.
Southwestern Athletic Conference (10 programs) – APR penalties have left 40 percent of the teams – Alabama State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Mississippi Valley State and Prairie View A&M – banned from the postseason, hampering the conference’s effort to try to move in a positive direction. Four teams have new head coaches and defending champion Southern appears to be the one to beat again. From a prestige standpoint, it would be good for the SWAC if Grambling State makes progress under new coach Broderick Fobbs.
While the leagues have not won a postseason season game in a while (a long while) or been consistently competitive against fellow FCS foes, the SWAC and MEAC could be dead last like the Pioneer Football League.
