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This week we welcome the SWAC, Big Sky, and Big South to the wonderful world of spring FCS football, to go with the Missouri Valley, SoCon and OVC, who started their spring conference slates last week, and Tarleton State, who spent their time crushing FBS New Mexico State 43-17.
Two games involving MEAC and SWAC teams remain on the schedule for this week.
With the MEAC cancelling their season late, the winner of the SWAC would seem to be the de facto spring FCS HBCU Champions in the spring, especially considering how loaded and talented it is.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference has announced its Spring 2021 Preseason All-SWAC Football team highlighted by Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Felix Harper and Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Keonte Hampton.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced its preseason football poll during the Cricket Wireless SWAC Football Virtual Media Day on Thursday
This is the 14th year of BOXTOROW’s Top 10 HBCU FCS Recruiting Class Rankings. Recruiting at HBCUs has really stepped up, to the point that HBCUs are regularly landing recruits that would go to small to mid-sized FBS programs.
The SWAC is still battling it out to see who can challenge the teams atop the East and West divisions. While it might look like Southern and Alcorn State have all but wrapped it up according to the eye test, there are still a couple of teams that could play spoiler so long as they keep winning and have games against the top teams later in the season.
The SWAC is getting back into full swing this week and we have two massive games to look forward to. On the one hand we have the Magic City Classic, one of, if not the best attended FCS game in the country, and we have Southern visiting Alcorn State, who will be retiring Steve McNair’s number this weekend, along with being a possible preview of the SWAC Championship later this year.
Without question the top FCS game of the week was the battle of FCS powerhouses in the Fargodome.Returning home after 47-22 victory the week before against Delaware, the heavily-favored Bison had a very tough battle against visiting UC Davis, ultimately winning 27-16 after scoring a late touchdown to finally put the game in the win column for North Dakota State.
Most years, it’s FCS teams stunning FBS teams, but this week, it was non-scholarship FCS and sub-Division-I teams stunning FCS squads instead. In their home opener, non-scholarship Dayton (1-0) stunned Indiana State (0-2) 42-35. Flyer QB Jack Cook accounted for four touchdowns, two rushing and two passing, while RB Sean Prophit scored on a 13-yard.
With many people thinking that Alcorn State will run away with the SWAC this year, it’ll be interesting to see how other teams perform out of the gate. From interesting OOC match ups with other FCS schools to potential FBS upsets, the SWAC will have plenty of chances to make their case for being a much better conference top to bottom than most people perceive it to be.
Last season, Alcorn State was oh-so-close to knocking off North Carolina A&T in the Celebration bowl. This season, who is likely to be competing for a Celebration Bowl bid, and who’s likely to be sitting at home?
Alabama State’s shock 28-25 win over Alcorn State seemed to put Alabama State in a good position going into the second half of the year, even after a brutal schedule put the Hornets at 2-4.
College Sports Journal’s NCAA 2019 College Football Team Previews are being released all summer, and we’re ranking all the Division I HBCUs from Number 20 to Number 1. Check back to see where your favorite HBCU is ranked!
