There’s no such thing as a meaningless conference championship game in college basketball, especially at the low major level, but Saturday night’s SWAC title game between Texas Southern and Southern will certainly enter uncharted territory.
Texas Southern will enter SWAC title game already owning league’s auto-bid
Two teams will play for the SWAC championship Saturday night, one which already owns the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The SWAC has been a one-bid league in every season of its existence save 1980 (big ups, Alcorn State), but this year, a team will play for its conference tournament championship with the comfort of knowing that it's already safely into the field of 68. That isn't because Texas Southern did enough during the regular season to warrant guaranteed at-large bid status, it's because the Tigers' opponent, Southern, is ineligible to participate in the NCAA Tournament as part of the punishment for its subpar APR scores.
In March of 2014, the SWAC, which has been hit harder by APR penalties than any other conference, voted to amend the league’s bylaw which had previously stated that teams ineligible for NCAA Tournament play were also ineligible for all conference postseason play. The move was made in large part so that the league, which at the time had four of its 10 members facing APR sanctions, could avoid the embarrassment and financial hit that would have come with having to play a six-team conference tournament in men’s basketball.
The amended league rules now state that if a team ineligible for NCAA Tournament play makes it to the conference championship game, the contest will still be played, but the team’s opponent will have already earned the league’s automatic bid to the big dance. The common thought was that the rule would come into play immediately, as Southern -- which was also facing an APR ban last season -- was the league’s regular season champion. The Jaguars were upset in the tournament quarterfinals, however, and Texas Southern wound up winning a pedestrian title game against eighth-seeded Prairie View A&M.
The positive thing for the SWAC is that the team benefitting from the phenomenon this year just so happens to be the one most worthy of representing the conference in the NCAA Tournament. Texas Southern has won 10 straight, went 16-2 in the league during the regular season, and pulled road upsets of then-No. 25 Michigan State and Kansas State back in December. The Tigers, who are led by former Indiana head coach Mike Davis, fell to Cal Poly in the First Four a season ago.
Texas Southern will be dancing on Sunday, even if Southern winds up being the team cutting down the nets on Saturday.
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