Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament

The SWAC was established in 1920,[6] 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.[7] 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[8] 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.[9] Also, with the SWAC tournament now including eight schools,[1] simply more lower-seeded teams have an opportunity to compete for the conference crown. However, allowing lower-seeded teams to stake claim to the title and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament may have also come with a price; from 2000—when the SWAC tournament field expanded to six teams[10]—to 2016, SWAC entrants went just 4–36 in NCAA regional play.[11]

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;[3] Jackson State and Southern met in that first series.[12] 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.[13] After the 1980 series featured a fourth consecutive JSU–SU match-up,[14][15][16] 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[10] and eight teams in 2008[1]). That first tournament, held in Grambling, Louisiana, actually had the reverse effect though as it included division champions Grambling and Alcorn State—but then still gave division runners-up Southern and Jackson State yet another opportunity to win the title;[17] indeed, Southern did win[18] the rain-delayed tournament.[19]

Initially, the earliest tournaments alternated between the home stadiums of the western and eastern division champions. Although the event had been played off-campus before (at Pete Goldsby Field, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), it was played in a non-qualifier's hometown (Houston, home of Texas Southern) for the first time in 1985[20] and then moved to its first true neutral location for the 1986 edition—a rainy affair held at the old Bringhurst Field in Alexandria, Louisiana.[21] But the tournament 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.[22]

The competition's changing format has also been questioned. In 2002 a weary 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."[23] Indeed, multiple people associated with the Southern program over the years have expressed disappointment with format adjustments, hinting that it could be done to reduce odds of the Jaguars winning yet another tournament.[24][25][26] One of the tournament's most vocal critics has been Roger Cador,[23][27] who served as an assistant or head coach at Southern during most of the SWAC tournaments that have been held. In 2019 the league office responded by hiring Cador in an advisory role as staff liaison to "assist with marketing, promotions, and game management/event operations" for the tournament.[28]

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.[25] This was not the first rain-plagued tournament held in Natchez,[29] nor was it the last. In 1994 rain pushed Southern into playing three full nine-inning games on the day of the championship; the exhausted team ended up losing the finale by a mere one run.[30] In 1995 the stadium was double-booked with Mississippi High School Activities Association playoff games during one of the days.[31] 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.[32] Since then, the tournaments have been held relatively drama-free; however, even then rain delays at the 2008 event[33] required the use of an additional facility in an attempt to stay on schedule[34] with its new eight-team format. Also, 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.[35] The event found a stable home after that at Wesley Barrow Stadium in New Orleans, which is associated with initiatives by the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy to promote increased participation by minorities in the sport[36]—something that the SWAC has a vested interest in as a conference for historically black universities. In 2019 New Orleans served as a host city for the SWAC tournament for the tenth time—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).

A three-year deal was signed in 2020 to return the tournament to Smith–Wills Stadium.[2] 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.[37]