Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman will be joining the SWAC East in July 2021. Which current East Division school should be moved to the West for football? Here's what the conference looks like now:



East Division
Alabama A&M
Alabama State
Alcorn State
Jackson State
Mississippi Valley State

West Division
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Grambling State
Prairie View A&M
Southern
Texas Southern

The obvious answer is one of the Mississippi schools - most likely Alcorn St. However, given the locations of the schools, I may consider both Alcorn St and Jackson St then place UAPB in the East.

To me it’s either Alcon or Valley. Jackson State should be in the East. Alcorn makes the most geographic sense, but Valley pairs with UAPB well.

If this is for football, then I’d go with whichever will balance divisions and get the most compelling matchups. If it’s for everything, I think a UAPB-MVSU travel pair makes sense.

Itta Bena is 8-8.5 hours from the Texas schools. Scratch Valley.

Jackson is 6:30-7:15.

Alcorn is 6-6.5 hours.

Alcorn is just on the limits of busable for the Texas schools, so I expect Alcorn to move west.

(08-25-2020 10:39 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Itta Bena is 8-8.5 hours from the Texas schools. Scratch Valley.

Jackson is 6:30-7:15.

Alcorn is 6-6.5 hours.

Alcorn is just on the limits of busable for the Texas schools, so I expect Alcorn to move west.

Pine Bluff is a 7 to 8 hour drive from Prairie View and Houston.

Alcorn

Valley is headed West.

(08-26-2020 09:42 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  Valley is headed West.

Official or just your guess?

(08-26-2020 10:09 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(08-26-2020 09:42 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  Valley is headed West.

Official or just your guess?

Must be a guess, since I can't find anything official.

(08-27-2020 12:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(08-26-2020 10:09 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(08-26-2020 09:42 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  Valley is headed West.

Official or just your guess?

Must be a guess, since I can't find anything official.

If the conference intends on keeping UAPB in the West, then MVSU might make sense.

If MVSU goes West, in terms of drive time:

UAPB: 2:45
GSU: 3:28
SU: 4:21
TXSO: 8:13
PVAM: 8:31
Total 27:18/Average 5:28

If they go East:

BCU: 11:59
FAMU: 8:27
AAMU: 4:48
ASU: 4:46
JSU: 1:50
Total: 31:50/Average 6:22

As long as they don't play at both Texas schools in the same year, it is to their advantage to go West. This also yields the most favorable arrangement for Bethune-Cookman, although the difference is much smaller.

Geographically, the difference between the 3 Mississippi schools is rather marginal. Competitively, however, the difference is quite stark, at least in terms of football performance. Alcorn is the best team in the East Division, and the West Division already has a distinct competitive edge over the East. So moving Alcorn would be a bad idea from that perspective. JSU is a middle of the road performer, while MVSU may be the worst football team in all of FCS. Moving either would be better than Alcorn, but JSU keeps the divisions balanced better with the addition of FAMU and BCU to the East.

(08-27-2020 04:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Geographically, the difference between the 3 Mississippi schools is rather marginal. Competitively, however, the difference is quite stark, at least in terms of football performance. Alcorn is the best team in the East Division, and the West Division already has a distinct competitive edge over the East. So moving Alcorn would be a bad idea from that perspective. JSU is a middle of the road performer, while MVSU may be the worst football team in all of FCS. Moving either would be better than Alcorn, but JSU keeps the divisions balanced better with the addition of FAMU and BCU to the East.

Yes, but should permanent divisional choices be made over transient differences in current team quality?

Yes, Alcorn is really good right now. But historically, they aren't Alabama or Ohio State.

(08-27-2020 02:09 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 12:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(08-26-2020 10:09 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(08-26-2020 09:42 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  Valley is headed West.

Official or just your guess?

Must be a guess, since I can't find anything official.

If the conference intends on keeping UAPB in the West, then MVSU might make sense.

I don't think they'd want to go out of their way to worsen travel for a team in the West. All that's required is moving one team, from East to West.

(08-27-2020 04:09 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 04:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Geographically, the difference between the 3 Mississippi schools is rather marginal. Competitively, however, the difference is quite stark, at least in terms of football performance. Alcorn is the best team in the East Division, and the West Division already has a distinct competitive edge over the East. So moving Alcorn would be a bad idea from that perspective. JSU is a middle of the road performer, while MVSU may be the worst football team in all of FCS. Moving either would be better than Alcorn, but JSU keeps the divisions balanced better with the addition of FAMU and BCU to the East.

Yes, but should permanent divisional choices be made over transient differences in current team quality?

Yes, Alcorn is really good right now. But historically, they aren't Alabama or Ohio State.

I never said the divisions had to be permanent. You could reassess every X years.

(08-27-2020 04:12 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 04:09 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 04:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Geographically, the difference between the 3 Mississippi schools is rather marginal. Competitively, however, the difference is quite stark, at least in terms of football performance. Alcorn is the best team in the East Division, and the West Division already has a distinct competitive edge over the East. So moving Alcorn would be a bad idea from that perspective. JSU is a middle of the road performer, while MVSU may be the worst football team in all of FCS. Moving either would be better than Alcorn, but JSU keeps the divisions balanced better with the addition of FAMU and BCU to the East.

Yes, but should permanent divisional choices be made over transient differences in current team quality?

Yes, Alcorn is really good right now. But historically, they aren't Alabama or Ohio State.

I never said the divisions had to be permanent. You could reassess every X years.

I'm not sure it matters once Florida A&M joins. The SWAC Championship has been played since 1999 (21 years) and has been won by current West teams 14 times. While the best 3 schools are Grambling St, Southern, and Alcorn St, the 2 West schools appeared in the championship game consistently throughout the years but Alcorn St's 6 appearances were in the last 6 seasons.

West
Grambling St: 10 appearances, 8-2
Southern: 7 appearances, 3-4
UAPB: 2 appearances, 1-1
Prairie View A&M: 1 appearance, 1-0
Texas Southern: no appearances, 0-0

East
Alcorn St: 6 appearances, 4-2
Alabama A&M: 6 appearances, 1-5
Jackson St: 5 appearances, 1-4
Alabama St: 4 appearances, 1-3
Mississippi Valley St: no appearances, 0-0

(Cross-posted from another thread)

Some interesting info I found on an HBCU sports forum here, from July 7:

Quote:The SWAC commish on ESPN 105.9 didn't commit to which Mississippi team was moving to the West but stated that they would do the 2 permanent cross division rivals and 1 rotating (to save money for the FL and TX teams). Emphasis would be placed on distance over "competitve balance in football"

And 2 posts down:

Quote:If there is [2 permanent crossovers per team], it really wouldn't matter who because if Alcorn moves to the West (which most presume), it's gonna be Valley and JSU. If it's Valley, it's gonna be JSU and Alcorn and same with JSU (Alcorn and Valley). Where it might get murky is if the schools can't choose their 2 permanents but the commish said he wants to keep rivalries in tact

If that's indeed what the commissioner said, I feel the likeliest team to move to the West is MVSU. Below are the 3 most likely scenarios, with 2 proposed protected crossovers listed for each team. For all 3 scenarios, if there is only 1 protected crossover per team, I would propose the ones marked "A".



Green pairings are the same across all 3 scenarios, blue are the same across 2 scenarios, and red are unique, with the 3 Mississippi schools treated as interchangeable.

Turns out they're moving Alcorn over. <shrugs>

It'll be interesting to see what protected crossovers they settle on, if any.

(09-05-2020 12:40 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Turns out they're moving Alcorn over. <shrugs>

It'll be interesting to see what protected crossovers they settle on, if any.

It's a good move. Yes, it puts arguably the currently three strongest programs - Alcorn, Grambling and Southern in one division, but this isn't a historically true situation in the SWAC so the decision should be made on geography not transient present-strength of schools.

Alcorn is the best geographic fit in the West.

Geography wins