SWAC football is getting better


Is SWAC football getting better?

  • Yes, SWAC football has improved the last 5-10 years

    Votes: 12 26.7%

  • Not really, SWAC football is at about the same level

    Votes: 13 28.9%

  • No, SWAC football has gotten worse the last 5-10 years

    Votes: 20 44.4%
  • Total voters
    45
B

BULL DAWG

New Member
By Reggie Benson, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Al. - For as long as anyone can remember, the Southwestern Athletic Conference has been a three-headed monster when it comes to football.

Grambling, Southern and Jackson State have been by far the best programs in the league. Grambling has won 22 SWAC championships. Southern has won 18 and Jackson State 16. Nobody else even comes close.

Since 1960, the trio has won or shared 46 SWAC championships and has dominated the last three decades. Jackson State won eight championships in the 1980s. Southern won four titles in the 1990s and Grambling has won five this decade.

But things appear to be changing.

The SWAC has crowned a different champion each of the last five years and Southern hasn't been one of them. In fact, the Jaguars haven't won a title since 2003 and it doesn't appear they'll win one any time soon after going 2-9 in Stump Mitchell's first season.

"It's becoming more and more competitive," said Alabama A&M coach Anthony Jones, whose team finished fourth in the Eastern Division this season after reaching the championship game a year ago. "I think it's very easy to see. Week in and week out, teams are knocking each other off."

Alabama A&M won its first title in 2006. Jackson State won its first SWAC title in more than a decade in 2007 and Grambling won it in 2008.

Prairie View won the SWAC championship last year for the first time since 1964 and Texas Southern outlasted Alabama State 11-6 last Saturday to win its first title since 1968, when it shared it with Alcorn State and Grambling.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/12/swac_football_is_improving.html
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What do ya'll think? Does the current parity in the league mean that the overall conference is getting better?
 



The key to an improving SWAC is teams consistently winning. Don't go 8-3 one season and drop down to 3-7 the next. Consistency breeds improvement overall.
 
Reggie Benson obviously didn't watch the last scg. That was a horrible shameful display of football from both teams. Benson must have been bored when he wrote this
 
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11-6 game when one team crossed the 50 as many times as the chicken crossed the road. smh then the other team qb gets pulled a day before the big game on some shit txsu is trying to cover up.

again smh
 
luvdaboom said:
11-6 game when one team crossed the 50 as many times as the chicken crossed the road. smh then the other team qb gets pulled a day before the big game on some shit txsu is trying to cover up.

again smh
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Still bitter huh:lol::lol: Go sit yo azz down with your coach and regroup for next year.:popcorn::lol:
 
It's gotten worse....top to bottom. When you look at the stupid penalties each team makes, the turnovers, the poor passing, and the poor blocking and tackling you can obviously say it has gotten worse. Look at how the conference looks when it steps out of conference. We look terrible when against competition on our level (FCS), above (FBS), and below (DII).
 
Ok we all see where this is going.. 3 schools gone say its getting worse and the rest will say the opposite... right, right?
 
Jaguar94 said:
It's gotten worse....top to bottom. When you look at the stupid penalties each team makes, the turnovers, the poor passing, and the poor blocking and tackling you can obviously say it has gotten worse. Look at how the conference looks when it steps out of conference. We look terrible when against competition on our level (FCS), above (FBS), and below (DII).
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I do agree with your keypoint however. DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE! It seperates the winners from pretenders..
 
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Jaguar94 said:
It's gotten worse....top to bottom. When you look at the stupid penalties each team makes, the turnovers, the poor passing, and the poor blocking and tackling you can obviously say it has gotten worse. Look at how the conference looks when it steps out of conference. We look terrible when against competition on our level (FCS), above (FBS), and below (DII).
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i wholeheartedly agree 100%
 
Benson is just not a good reporter. He needs a refined perspective and for him to have been where he is for so long, he should know better.

He says the league is improving because of younger coaches? NOT! Comegy, Broadway and Cole are not exactly young. The reason for the parity is schools investing in their programs. Everyone ragged on PV for not giving out schollies but in 1995, how many of us were not giving out but 30 scholarships! Over half of the confernece!

Is the league improving? I think no matter how good certain teams get, they will still be compared to JSU and Grambling. I think the conference looked good this year because AlaState and TXSO got to Bham with JSU and GSU having decent teams. I'm still not even sure how they wound up in Bham. It's hard to say if the conference has improved or not, however. What we do know is that things are not the same in 2010 as is was in 1990 so we need to stop trying to compare eras. I think the SWAC has to figure out who it is before serious improvement can be realized. Do we want a Legacy Bowl? Do we want the SWAC Championship game? Do we want the playoffs? Do we want 7 games? Do we want 7 games with intraconference teams as OOC opponents? Do we want 9 game mandates?

The last 10 years have been a lot of trial and error it does not seem to be settling out anytime soon. Changes in how we do things, have changed the history of this conference. If there was a 7 game format, who knows who would have gone to Bham. We really can't even compare last year to this year. What if JSU games vs TxSo and GSU didn't count? What if PV didn't have to play JSU or AlaState? AAMU's program benefitted from the 7 game format in the early 2000s when they were going to Bham but was like 2-15 vs the Big 3 and was not close to the level of Jackson State. Hughes got fired because of the 7 game format. So in order for us compare where we are and where we are going, we need to define our path and stick to it! I still don't think we know what is best for us.

The Logical One has spoken!
 
Someone tell me how has SWAC football gotten better? Compared to what?
Middle School.
Since 2004, every SWAC champion we had has been suspect. That 2003 Southern squad was the last time the SWAC came close to producing a complete team.
 
sfallstar said:
Ok we all see where this is going.. 3 schools gone say its getting worse and the rest will say the opposite... right, right?
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Okay so do YOU feel the SWAC has gotten better? How many players are we putting in the NFL, how many quality OOC wins are we getting, do we have schools getting ranked in the top 15 Nationally, ect? Explain to me how has SWAC football gotten better.
 
PsychoJag said:
Okay so do YOU feel the SWAC has gotten better? How many players are we putting in the NFL, how many quality OOC wins are we getting, do we have schools getting ranked in the top 15 Nationally, ect? Explain to me how has SWAC football gotten better.
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Yeah, when is the last time the SWAC had a first round draft pick?
 
PsychoJag said:
Okay so do YOU feel the SWAC has gotten better? How many players are we putting in the NFL, how many quality OOC wins are we getting, do we have schools getting ranked in the top 15 Nationally, ect? Explain to me how has SWAC football gotten better.
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As Jag94 so eloquently pointed out I beleieve the SWAC needs to focus more on discipline.. IN ALL MAJOR SPORTS.. this is a huge problem in hoops as well.

As far as OOC wins is concerned, I attribute these perrils to:
1. Poor Scheduling (For example people think a matchup w/ a D2 or lower is a good game to book, not realizing that the more "liberal" eligibility requirements allow team to sometimes stack-up on transfers & our guys run into a buzz saw). More scouting of talent/ rank should be done to help prevent this.
2. Discipline, as I mentioned before. (Some of these lesser talented teams we play are WAAY more disciplined than us, and tend to sometimes show up and pop us square in the mouth.)

Bruh, I started in the Southland, discipline is the greatest thing seperating our conference from theirs... well that and $$

As far as NFL prospectus... underexposure quite simply put is the biggest culprit here.

I think the recent parity in the SWAC has been a good thing for our conference, eventhough alot who have been on top for so long won't agree. (Let's take the Big XII for example, outside the downfall of Texas, they have a lot of teams have turned sum heads this season in a conference that has always been criticized of being too top heavy.) Alot of new teams cracked the top 25 or beat top 25 schools.

Overall I feel a little of both.. I wouldn't outrighly say worse though...
 
sfallstar said:
Ok we all see where this is going.. 3 schools gone say its getting worse and the rest will say the opposite... right, right?
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Oh absolutely!! Lets just say if the 2010 SWAC Championship was between JSU and and GSU and the final score was JSU 11 and GSU 6, would we be having this discussion?

Even if the score had been TSU 33 ASU 28 some people would have found something to bytch about.
 
Tigerpride said:
I think the conference looked good this year because AlaState and TXSO got to Bham with JSU and GSU having decent teams. I'm still not even sure how they wound up in Bham. The Logical One has spoken!
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:lol:..Did he say the logical one, riight...We got to Tex-Ham by kicking your teams azz for one...no smack intended!:smug:
 
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