On October 31st the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Commissioner, Dr. Charles McClelland, made one of his biggest decisions since coming to the conference in September by announcing that the 2018 Toyota Football Championship game would be relocated.
Initially, the SWAC Championship game was to take place on December 1st at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama but due to a possible scheduling conflict between the University of Alabama at Birmingham vying to host the 2018 Conference USA Football Championship game, a change of venue was needed.
The SWAC office decided, in lieu of the situation, to move the championship game to the campus of the highest ranking institution that qualifies for the championship. As of right now, the Alcorn State University Braves are leading the Eastern Division with a 7-3, 5-1 record while the Southern University Jaguars are leading the Western Division with a 6-3, 5-1 record. The weeks ahead will be crucial for both teams. The Braves will take on the Jackson State University Tigers (5-4,4-2) on November 17th in the annual Soul Bowl and the winner of that game will be Eastern Conference champs while the Jaguars will take on the Grambling State University Tigers (6-4,4-2) in the annual Bayou Classic on November 24th and the winner of that contest will become the Western Division champs.
If Alcorn were to beat Jackson State then regardless of the outcome at the Bayou Classic the Braves would host the championship game because they beat both Southern and Grambling during the duration of the season but if the Braves were to lose to Jackson State in the Soul Bowl then the Tigers would have to travel to the winner of the Bayou Classic because they lost to Southern during the season and although they didn’t play Grambling during the season GSU has an overall better record and they would host the championship game.
The 2018 SWAC Championship game will be played on Saturday, December 1st at 3:30 pm central time. The game is scheduled to be broadcast live on ESPNU and it will also be available live and on demand on the WatchESPN App.