This list of Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball champions concerns the overall conference baseball championship of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Southwestern Athletic Conference. The top four finishers in each conference division participate in a two-bracket, double-elimination tournament to determine the overall conference champion; it was most recently played in Birmingham, Alabama. The winner of the tournament also receives an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
History
Background The SWAC was established in 1920, and the conference sponsored baseball as a league sport through the 1932 season, until around the uncertain times of the Great Depression and World War II before sanctioning it again in 1949 (the conference had actually considered dropping the sport even before that; even early SWAC power Wiley shut down its baseball program after the 1932 season, despite featuring a rising young star infielder from the Chicago area in Pat Patterson). Between 1959 and 2003, only Southern, Jackson State, and Grambling State won SWAC championships. The league office itself has even been known to refer to these schools as the "Big Three." However, since 2004, nine different programs have won championships, suggesting greater competitiveness in the league. Also, with the SWAC tournament now including eight schools, simply more lower-seeded teams have an opportunity to compete for the conference crown.
Determining conference champions Early league championships were determined by regular season conference standings. By the fledgling conference's Fall 1923 business meeting, it was deemed feasible to purchase bronze shields produced by W. A. Holt company of Waco, Texas for the winners of that school years' football and baseball titles to display temporarily. Champions for three consecutive years would be allowed to keep the shield permanently—something that only Texas College was able to achieve during that era. For the first three seasons after the SWAC had renewed sponsorship of baseball in 1949, a championship series was held; the conference was divided into northern and southern divisions during that time period. The old bronze shield had also apparently been replaced with a tall trophy around then. In 1977 the league returned to division play—this time with eastern and western divisions instead (reflecting the geographic changes in conference membership)—with the two division winners again facing off in a best-of-three championship series. After the 1980 series featured a fourth consecutive JSU–SU match-up, the series was successfully converted into a more inclusive four-team, double-elimination tournament for the 1981 season, guaranteeing that at least one school that had never won the SWAC title before could compete in it (the four-team field was expanded to six teams in 2000 and eight teams in 2008).
Notable achievements Southern has won 34 conference and 32 (Southern and Western) division crowns over the years; Roger Cador was the head coach for 14 of those overall championships. Texas College (1927–30), Southern (1952–55 and 1996–99), and Grambling State (1961–64) have each won four SWAC championships in a row (although Texas College was later forced to forfeit the last of theirs during that particular stretch).
Current status A three-year deal was signed in 2020 to return the tournament to Smith–Wills Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi. However, just two weeks after that agreement was announced, the NCAA canceled all spring championship events for the 2020 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, less than a month before the 2021 tournament, it was announced that it would be relocated from Jackson to Toyota Field in Madison, Alabama "due to enhanced COVID-19 protocols." Most recent tournament games have been played in Birmingham, home of the SWAC's administrative offices.
Champions
Conference championships by year The following is a list of conference champions, organized by year. The league office apparently does not acknowledge titles earned prior to 1959 in its public releases. It is not immediately clear if this is due to space constraints or poor record-keeping—or if the conference simply no longer considers pre-1959 titles as "official" for whatever reason. At that time the SWAC began to change significantly with a shift in membership from smaller, private Christian colleges in and around Texas—many of whom are now members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics's HBCU Athletic Conference—to larger, secular public universities spread throughout the Deep South (Grambling and Jackson State were particularly notable additions, especially as far as baseball competition was concerned). Southern also won the NAIA World Series in 1959. The conference began changing demographically at that time as well, with southern universities beginning to integrate.
Year Regular season champion(s) Postseason champion(s) Coach(es) 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 Henry B. HuclesFred T. Long 1926 Robert Walter Johnson 1927 1928 H. D. English 1929 H. D. English 1930 (forfeited) Fred T. Long 1931 Fred T. Long 1932 Ace Mumford 1933–1948 (baseball no longer sanctioned as an official sport by the conference) 1949 N: N: Bishop J. Forrest KelleyShannon B. Little S: S: 1950 N: Southern Robert Henry "Bob" Lee S: 1951 N: Texas College Ernest Sterling S: 1952 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1953 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1954 Robert Henry "Bob" LeeJ. Forrest Kelley 1955 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1956 J. Forrest Kelley 1957 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1958 J. Forrest Kelley 1959 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1960 Robert Henry "Bob" Lee 1961 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones 1962 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones 1963 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones 1964 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones 1965 Emory Hines 1966 Emory Hines 1967 Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones 1968 Robert Hill 1969 Emory Hines 1970 Emory Hines 1971 W. C. Gorden 1972 Emory Hines 1973 Robert Braddy 1974 Emory Hines 1975 Emory Hines 1976 Emory Hines 1977 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1978 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1979 E: Southern Leroy Boyd W: 1980 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1981 E: Leroy Boyd W: 1982 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1983 E: Grambling State Wilbert Ellis W: 1984 E: Wilbert Ellis W: 1985 E: Grambling State Wilbert Ellis W: 1986 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1987 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1988 E: Roger Cador W: 1989 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1990 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1991 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1992 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1993 E: Jackson State Robert BraddyRoger Cador W: 1994 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1995 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 1996 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1997 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1998 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 1999 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 2000 E: Jackson State Robert Braddy W: 2001 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 2002 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 2003 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 2004 E: Candy Robinson W: 2005 E: Southern Roger Cador W: W: 2006 E: (forfeited)E: Prairie View A&M Michael Robertson W: 2007 E: Prairie View A&M Michael Robertson W: 2008 E: Candy Robinson W: 2009 E: Southern Roger Cador W: 2010 E: James Cooper W: 2011 E: Alcorn State Barrett Rey W: 2012 E: Waskyla Cullivan W: 2013 E: Jackson State Omar Johnson W: 2014 E: Omar Johnson W: 2015 E: Alabama State Michael Robertson W: 2016 E: Alabama State Mervyl Melendez W: 2017 E: Michael Robertson W: 2018 E: Texas Southern Michael Robertson W: 2019 E: Southern Kerrick Jackson W: Southern 2020 (most of regular season and all of postseason canceled, due to COVID-19 pandemic) 2021 E: Southern Chris Crenshaw W: 2022 E: Alabama State José Vázquez W: 2023 E: Jamey Shouppe W: 2024 E: Davin Pierre W: 2025 Jonathan Hernandez 2026 José Vázquez Notes: overall conference champions are listed in boldface; in 1930, Texas College initially won the overall conference championship but, after forfeiting conference games for the use of an ineligible player, fell behind Bishop and Wiley in the retroactive final conference standings; in 1993, Jackson State and Southern were declared co-champions, due to weather forcing the cancellation of the SWAC baseball tournament final; in 2006, Jackson State initially clinched at least a share of the Eastern Division championship but, after forfeiting conference games for the use of ineligible players, fell behind Mississippi Valley State by the final division standings.
Conference championships by school School No. oftitles Year(s) Southern 34 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2019, 2021 Jackson State 16 1968, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2013, 2014 Grambling State 10 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1983, 1984, 1985, 2010, 2024 Wiley 6 1925, 1930, 1931, 1954, 1956, 1958 Prairie View A&M 5 1924, 1925, 2006, 2007, 2012 Texas College 5 1927, 1928, 1929, , 1932, 1951 Texas Southern 5 2004, 2008, 2015, 2017, 2018 Alabama State 3 2016, 2022, 2026 Bishop 3 1921, 1930, 1949 Alcorn State 1 2011 Bethune–Cookman 1 2025 Florida A&M 1 2023 Samuel Huston 1 1926 Note: in 1930, Texas College initially won the overall conference championship but, after forfeiting conference games for the use of an ineligible player, fell behind Bishop and Wiley in the retroactive final conference standings.
Regular season championships by school Regular season conference standings determined the SWAC's overall champions from 1921 to 1932 and from 1952 to 1976 (all other seasons relied upon a split into divisions with postseason games deciding the SWAC's overall champions—except from 1933 to 1948 when the SWAC did not sanction baseball as a league sport). Since 2025, divisions have been discontinued, but the conference tournament still determines the overall champion. The teams below have won the regular season championship when it did not decide the overall champion.
School No. oftitles Year(s) Bethune–Cookman 2 2025, 2026
Eastern Division championships by school School No. oftitles Year(s) Jackson State 26 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, , 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2021 Alabama State 7 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 Alcorn State 7 1981, 1985, 1988, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2011 Mississippi Valley State 6 1983, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009 Florida A&M 1 2024 Note: in 2006, Jackson State initially clinched at least a share of the Eastern Division championship but, after forfeiting conference games for the use of ineligible players, fell behind Mississippi Valley State by the final division standings.
Western Division championships by school School No. oftitles Year(s) Southern 30 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2022 Grambling State 8 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1993, 2017, 2023 Texas Southern 4 2005, 2010, 2018, 2024 Arkansas–Pine Bluff 3 2014, 2015, 2016 Prairie View A&M 3 2006, 2007, 2021
Northern Division championships by school School No. oftitles Year(s) Bishop 3 1949, 1950, 1951 Arkansas–Pine Bluff 1 1949
Southern Division championships by school School No. oftitles Year(s) Southern 2 1949, 1950 Texas College 2 1949, 1951
See also
Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament
References