The Southwestern Athletic Conference(SWAC) counsel ruled unanimously to approve FAMU’s move to their conference starting in 2021.
What We Know:
- FAMU will become a full member of the SWAC conference at the start of the 2021-2022 season.
- FAMU will be the fourth school in the past four years to announce plans to leave the MEAC (Mid Eastern Athletic Conference).
- Hampton University, who left the MEAC after their 2018 season, will be followed by North Carolina A&T who plans to make the leap starting in 2021. This decision was made jsut weeks before FAMU’s announcement. Both schools cited that the move could drastically improve their programs brand on a national level.
- Savannah State University was the second team to leave the MEAC back in 2019, as they dropped back down to Division II citing financial concerns.
- The move is also projected to save FAMU 400,000 dollars in travel expenses.
- FAMU, which is located in Tallahassee, Florida is more than 500 miles from almost all of their conference counterparts. The move to the SWAC will cut that number in half with many of the current SWAC members calling Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana home.
- The move will also allow for old rivalries to be reignited. Teams such as, Southern University, Grambling State University, and Jackson State University will now get a yearly battle with FAMU.
- The MEAC will be down to 9 programs after FAMU’s departure in 2021. Only 7 of the remaining programs in the MEAC sponsor football programs.
- The MEAC football powerhouses left, such as North Carolina Central University, Bethune-Cookman University, Norfolk State University and Howard University, must now question what’s next for their depleting conference.
This story was first spotted at HBCU Gameday.
