SWAC Football Week 1 Recap: Results, top players, team of the week

The 2021 SWAC football season kicked off the first full week of the year with a bang putting on a number of interesting and exciting games.

The reigning SWAC champions escaped with a victory in a thrilling game, a league favorite disappoints in their season debut, and a new contender emerging in the conference.

The SWAC was the only HBCU majority conference that had most of its teams play games during the spring season (Alcorn State did not play any games; Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman were not members of the SWAC in the spring).

The Alabama A&M Bulldogs won the SWAC championship in the spring defeating the UAPB Golden Lions to claim their first conference title

Prior to the Bulldogs’ win, Alcorn State was the two-time defending SWAC champion but did not get a chance to defend its title due to sitting out the season.

They returned to the field in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge last weekend looking to make a statement that they were still the kings of the conference. However, the extended absence proved to be too much to overcome as they were upset by the North Carolina Central Eagles.

In contrast, the remaining SWAC teams returned to the field with considerable in-game reps under their belt (except Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman) so the excuse of “rust” would not apply in case of a bad performance.

Let’s take a look at how the games played out and who stood out among the rest.