Overview: SWAC season kickoff & HBCU headlines
MSR Sports Columnist Charles Hallman delivers a breakdown from the weekly SWAC media call, highlighting head coach insights, NCAA eligibility rulings, and major HBCU basketball matchups hitting Minnesota this winter.
After last weekend’s MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff that was nationally televised from Atlanta between Alabama A&M (SWAC) and Howard (MEAC), won by Howard 31-24, nearly every Black college football team is now in full 2026 season mode.
“HBCU football is the SWAC,” Grambling State Head Coach Mickey Joseph said before the Challenge Kickoff on the SWAC weekly coaches media call August 24, which MSR regularly participates in. The Tigers (1-0) host Central State Sept. 5.
Jackson State Head Coach T.C. Taylor said when asked about the conference pre-season rankings that have JSU finishing second behind Alabama State in the SWAC East Division, “We just got to get out there and play our schedule and be in a position to play football in November.” The Bulldogs (1-0) play Edward Waters Sept. 5.
“Everyone wants a championship season,” stressed Alabama State Coach Eddie Robinson Jr., whose squad (1-0) plays Lane on Sept. 5.
“We are improving every day,” Bethune-Cookman’s Raymond Woodie Jr. pointed out. The Wildcats play UCF Sept. 3. “We got a lot of young guys that are competing.”
“We have 105 players, the most we’ve had here,” admitted Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-0) Coach Alonzo Hampton. They face Missouri Sept. 3.
This season the SWAC features two first-year coaches in Florida A&M’s Quinn Gray Sr. and Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk at Southern. FAMU (1-0) plays South Carolina State Sept. 6.
“I’m the rookie here being a head coach on the sidelines,” admitted Faulk, who was hired last November on his first head coaching opportunity. “Football is a team game and the team that plays better as a team usually wins,” he said. The Jaguars (0-1) play Kentucky State Sept. 5.
Legal challenges continue
There have been a growing number of legal challenges to the NCAA’s eligibility rules since the governing organization changed its rules in June, allowing athletes to play five seasons during a five-year timespan.
In response, both the SEC and Big Ten recently put in new rules barring formerly pro athletes from coming back to play in college, but a Dallas judge last week ordered the SEC not to block athletes from returning.
When asked, Prairie View A&M Coach Tremaine Jackson simply said, “There’s so much stuff going on in college football. It’s changing every single day. I love it the way it is. I love the chaos.
“You gotta learn to be successful in chaos,” the coach said. “Whether it is, we’ll improve and adapt to it and we’ll keep moving.”
Grace era continues at Howard
Credit: Courtesy of Howard Athletics
Ty Grace has led Howard women’s basketball to three MEAC regular season titles, two league tournament titles, two NCAAs, including the first-ever tournament win in program history this past spring, and a WNIT bid since her arrival in 2015. Last week, the school gave Grace a multiyear contract extension.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be part of the Howard legacy and I am incredibly proud of what this program represents,” Grace said in a released statement.
Finally …
The University of Minnesota basketball teams this season will host five Black college teams during its 2026-27 non-conference schedule.
MBB (3): Southern, Nov. 12; Texas Southern, Dec. 16; Alcorn State, Dec. 20
WBB (2): Southern, Nov. 10; Grambling, Dec. 20
Also, in perhaps a first at The Barn, a men’s/women’s HBCU basketball doubleheader when the Gophers’ men’s team plays Alcorn State and the women’s team plays Grambling on Dec. 20.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.