SWAC
12 current members. Our membership records under this name start in 1978; its titles go back further. 2025 champion: Prairie View A&M.
2010 standings
| Team | Conf. | Overall | Poll | Elo | Last 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Grambling | 8–0 | 9–1 | 1480 | WWWWW | ||
 Texas Southern | 7–1 | 7–3 | 1392 | WWWWW | ||
 Jackson State | 5–3 | 7–3 | 1364 | WLWLW | ||
 Prairie View A&M | 5–3 | 6–4 | 1400 | WWWLW | ||
 Alabama State | 5–3 | 6–4 | 1256 | LWWWL | ||
 Arkansas–Pine Bluff | 4–4 | 5–5 | 1272 | WWLWL | ||
 Alcorn State | 4–4 | 5–5 | 1251 | LLWWL | ||
 Southern | 1–7 | 2–8 | 1159 | LLLLL | ||
 Alabama A&M | 1–7 | 2–8 | 1163 | LLLLL | ||
 Mississippi Valley State | 0–8 | 0–9 | 1040 | LLLLL |
Ordered by conference winning percentage, then conference wins. Division splits and tiebreakers aren’t applied. Poll: the FCS coaches’ poll (else the final AP rank). Elo is our own rating, a measure of strength, not a prediction.
Against other conferences, 2010
SWAC teams are 9–10 outside the conference.
The bar is the share of those games won. Games against teams from the FBS count together.
Champions
Most titles
| Grambling | 26 | last 2017 |
| Jackson State | 19 | last 2024 |
| Southern | 18 | last 2013 |
| Alcorn State | 13 | last 2019 |
| Prairie View A&M | 12 | last 2025 |
| Alabama A&M | 2 | last 2020 |
| Alabama State | 2 | last 2004 |
| Texas Southern | 2 | last 1968 |
| Florida A&M | 1 | last 2023 |
| Arkansas–Pine Bluff | 1 | last 2012 |
By year
| 2025 | Prairie View A&M |
| 2024 | Jackson State |
| 2023 | Florida A&M |
| 2022 | Jackson State |
| 2021 | Jackson State |
| 2020 | Alabama A&M |
| 2019 | Alcorn State |
| 2018 | Alcorn State |
| 2017 | Grambling |
| 2016 | Grambling |
| 2015 | Alcorn State |
| 2014 | Alcorn State |
70 earlier seasons, back to 1931
Conference titles as each program’s Wikipedia infobox lists them (CC BY-SA), shared titles counted for every co-champion; the conference’s earlier names count as the same conference.
Members
Every school and its years (12)
Members now
- Alcorn State 1978–2019, 2021 on
- Grambling 1978 on
- Jackson State 1978 on
- Prairie View A&M 1978–1989, 1991 on
- Southern 1978 on
- Texas Southern 1978 on
- Mississippi Valley State 1979 on
- Alabama State 1982 on
- Alabama A&M 1998 on
- Arkansas–Pine Bluff 1998 on
- Bethune-Cookman 2021 on
- Florida A&M 2021 on
Football membership as CollegeFootballData.com records it under this conference’s name, from 1978; a school’s separate stays are listed apart.
Who came and went
| Season | School | Move | Announced | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Bethune-Cookman | Joined from MEAC | June 25, 2020 | |
| 2021 | Florida A&M | Joined from MEAC | June 4, 2020 | |
| 1997 † | Arkansas–Pine Bluff | Joined (independent before) | Source |
Football moves from Wikipedia’s lists of NCAA Division I conference changes; the season is the first one played in the new conference, and the date the one the lists or their sources give for the announcement. † Our membership records (CollegeFootballData.com) date the move to another season, or don’t show it. SportsDataverse’s football memberships agree with ours in 455 of 456 team-seasons from 1978. Conference realignment: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); memberships: SportsDataverse.
Honors while members
NFL first-round picks 8
| Alcorn State | 3 |
| Jackson State | 3 |
| Alabama State | 1 |
| Mississippi Valley State | 1 |
Counted only in seasons a school was a member on file (from 1978); a draft pick counts for the season before the draft. Heisman and All-America lists from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), draft picks from CollegeFootballData.com.
The money
The Southwestern Athletic Conference is a nonprofit. Its IRS Form 990 for the year to June 2025 reports $25.6 million in revenue, $7.3 million of it from television, and $21.1 million in expenses; it ended the year with $22.4 million in assets. Its best-paid, commissioner Dr Charles McClelland, was paid $400,000.
By year
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Assets | Top pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | $25.6M | $21.1M | $22.4M | $400K |
| 2023-24 | $20.0M | $8.3M | $18.0M | $350K |
| 2022-23 | $19.7M | $19.3M | $6.3M | $350K |
| 2021-22 | $14.1M | $13.5M | $6.5M | $300K |
| 2020-21 | $9.4M | $7.3M | $6.6M | $483K |
| 2019-20 | $7.2M | $9.9M | $4.8M | $338K |
| 2018-19 | $8.1M | $3.6M | $6.0M | |
| 2017-18 | $7.1M | $5.2M | $1.7M | $304K |
| 2016-17 | $6.7M | $6.9M | $3.2M | |
| 2015-16 | $6.0M | $7.3M | $790K | |
| 2014-15 | $7.1M | $7.6M | $1.6M | |
| 2013-14 | $6.8M | $7.2M | $2.0M | |
| 2012-13 | $6.2M | $6.4M | $2.6M | |
| 2011-12 | $6.0M | $6.0M | $2.8M | |
| 2010-11 | $5.5M | $5.4M | $3.0M |
Best paid, 2024-25
| Dr Charles McClelland, commissioner | $400,000 |
From the organization’s IRS Form 990, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and the IRS’s e-file data. Fiscal years end in June; top pay is the best-paid person’s total compensation on the return, listed for e-filed years (2018 on). Grants are the ones the conference lists on Schedule I; bowl payments are the ones bowls list on theirs. See every filing at ProPublica (EIN 64-0679979).