Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament

The Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament decides the conference baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Southwestern Athletic Conference. The top four finishers in each conference division participate in the two-bracket, double-elimination tournament which, since 2014, has been played at Wesley Barrow Stadium in New Orleans.^[4] The winner of the tournament receives an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

History

The SWAC was established in 1920,^[5] and the conference is known to have sponsored baseball as a league sport until around the Great Depression and World World II before sanctioning it again in 1949.^[6] However, conference baseball records prior to Southern's historic 1959 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championship are not necessarily complete; for example, Southern claims SWAC titles for the 1949, 1950, 1955, and 1956 seasons^[7] that existing conference records are not known to fully document. 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, seven programs have won championships, suggesting greater competitiveness in the league.^[8] Also, with the SWAC tournament now including eight schools,^[1] simply more lower-seeded teams have an opportunity to compete for the conference crown.

The roots of the tournament began in 1977 when the league split into eastern and western divisions, with the division winners facing off in a best-of-three championship series;^[2] Jackson State and Southern met in that first series.^[9] A true tournament format was initially planned for the conclusion of the 1980 regular season, but SWAC officials were unable to assemble it in time—so another two-team championship series ended up being held in its place instead.^[10] After the 1980 series featured a fourth consecutive JSU–SU match-up,^[11][12][13] 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^[14] and eight teams in 2008^[1]). That first tournament, held in Grambling, Louisiana, included division champions Grambling and Alcorn State and runners-up Southern and Jackson State.^[15]

The event has not evolved without growing pains. It has changed locations numerous times over the years (including nine different stadiums for the eight tournaments played between 1999 and 2006). The tournament has not necessarily been easy for cities to bid on, as the SWAC office has sometimes preferred bids that cover multiple sports facilities for an entire "SWAC Spring Sports Festival" encompassing all league-sponsored sports that have championship tournaments near the end of the spring semester.^[16]

The competition's changing format has also been questioned. In 2002 a columnist for the Baton Rouge Advocate lamented: "The SWAC Tournament has had a different venue and a different format each of the last four years. In that span, there have been times where both the site and the format were decided just weeks before the event."^[17]

Besides the partial cancellation of the 1980 tournament, in 1993 the then-Natchez, Mississippi-based tournament was canceled by SWAC commissioner James Frank before the championship game could be played, due to the field's condition after enduring lightning and rain delays with only "makeshift tarps" available; the title game participants, Jackson State and Southern, were subsequently declared co-champions.^[18] In 1994 rain pushed Southern into playing three full nine-inning games on the day of the championship; they ended up losing the finale by a mere one run.^[19] In 1995 the stadium was double-booked with Mississippi High School Activities Association playoff games during one of the days.^[20] The 2005 tournament, which was held at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, was suspended during the 15th inning of the championship game due to stray gunfire generated from a gang fight that occurred on the street behind the center field wall; the teams and fans alike were forced to scramble for cover.^[21] As of 2018, ten of the last eleven tournaments have been rotated through three cities within the state of Louisiana relatively drama-free; however, even then rain delays at the 2008 event^[22] required the use of an additional facility in an attempt to stay on schedule^[23] with its new eight-team format. A multi-year contract to hold the tournament at LaGrave Field in Fort Worth, Texas starting with the 2013 tourney was canceled after only one year due to the venue being in a state of disrepair.^[24] The event appears to have found a home for now at Wesley Barrow Stadium, which is associated with initiatives by the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy to promote increased participation by minorities in the sport^[25]—something that the SWAC has a vested interest in as a conference for historically black universities. New Orleans has now served as a host city for nine SWAC baseball tournaments—the most of any city. Natchez's Chester Willis Field is the venue that has hosted both the most tournaments overall and the most consecutive tournaments (eight between 1988 and 1995).

Champions

References