SWAC Men's Basketball

The Southwestern Athletic Conference is made up of ten historically black colleges and universities from (the division's name notwithstanding) the southeastern region of the United States. The schools are Southern, Texas Southern, Grambling State, Jackson State, Alcorn State, Prairie View A&M, Mississippi Valley State, Arkansas State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Alabama A&M. It was founded in 1920, although only one of the original six teams remains (Prairie View). http://www.swac.org/history/swac-history.html

The SWAC began holding a postseason tournament in 1978. The two most successful teams in the SWAC have been Alcorn State and Southern, each of which has won seven tournaments. Other multiple winners include Jackson State (which has five titles), Texas Southern (four), Mississippi Valley State (four), and defending champ Alabama State (three titles, all since 2001). Prairie View A&M and Alabama A&M each have a conference championship apiece. Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Grambling are the only schools yet to win a SWAC men's basketball tournament.

The SWAC has never had great success in the NCAA tournament. The only teams that have won a single game are Alcorn State, which is 3-6 in tournament play, and Southern, which is 1-7. http://hoopstournament.net/TeamReport.html The conference's most famous win was probably Southern's upset of fourth-seeded Georgia Tech in 1994, http://hoopstournament.net/Team_Reports/Scores/Southern.pdf which was followed by a loss to George Washington in the following round.