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More than 600 days have passed since Markquese Bell dressed in an orange-green uniform for a football match where 25,500 fans encouraged him and his teammates inside Bragg Memorial Stadium.
On his last trip to the grid, the Bell-Stats Perform FCS First Team Defensive All-America at Florida A&M flew around the field and played, securing the team’s high 12 matches in nail-biting 31-27. the final minutes of the 2019 Florida Classic against Bethune-Cookman in front of 55,730 people at Camping World Stadium.
“This is the longest time I’ve been away from football,” Bell says. “It’s been hard, but I’m ready to go back there.”
The 6 ‘3 “, 205-pound defensive backrest was one of many Rattler players whose dream of playing in the fall 2020 season and then in the spring of 2021 was interrupted by ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. later in the spring 2021 football season, when six MEAC football programs refused to play.
Several conference programs – Delaware State, Howard and South Carolina State – were repeated. MEAC allowed individual schools to do their best for their programs and athletes in accordance with CDC guidelines and NCAA health and safety practices.
FAMU, along with its South Florida rival Bethune-Cookman, were MEAC programs that didn’t play. Prior to the fall of 2020, the Southwest Sports Conference had announced that both BCU and FAMU would become full member institutions from 1 July.
Florida A&M had been in the MEAC for 39 years, while the BCU had made its mark in the league since 1979. Like FAMU and Bethune-Cookman, a former Hampton MEAC member left the league for the Big South conference in 2018, while North Carolina’s A&T The state program, which has won three MEAC titles and one with SCSU over the past five years, also became an official member of the Big South on July 1st.
With the start of the 2021 season — which begins with the COVID-19 delta variant still rampant — things are different for players like Bell and Wildcats lineup Untareo Johnson and tight-lipped Taron Mallard.
Johnson says he is ready to play football.
“Playing football is like Christmas,” he says. – We have been preparing for Christmas for two years. I’m so ready to see another colored jersey on the other side of the ball. “
Eric Shelton / Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY Network
Conference reorganization has been a trend in the college sports landscape for nearly the past 16 years as programs have switched conferences to gain more visibility, increase recruitment, broaden their path in the television market, and earn better opportunities for voting and College Football rankings in the playoffs.
The idea of holding potential super conferences among the best in Power 5 could continue to shape university sports. In recent months and weeks, the possibility of 12 teams expanding into the Common Fisheries Policy has been discussed, with the NCAA changing its rules to allow athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness, as well as what started as a small rumble during SEC media days. turned to Texas and Oklahoma, who sent applications to join the SEC and were accepted. While there’s still a lot of drama between the SEC and the Big 12, one thing remains constant: College football and college sports are changing.
FCS conferences and programs – especially SWAC – are involved in the party to gain more visibility and try to level the playing field. Most of this comes from last year and starts with Jackson State coach Deion Sanders.
SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland says it’s a good time to be in the league.
“The SWAC media brand has expanded,” McClelland told ESPN during the SWAC media days. “Bringing FAMU and BCU during the 100th anniversary year is great, every week is significant.
“For forty-four years, SWAC has led the FCS presence. This is going to be an unprecedented season. Others are trying to come knocking on SWAC’s doors to our member institutions, but I just want fans to know that SWAC is united and strong. This is just the beginning, and the best is yet to come. “
McClelland also did not evade the league’s COVID-19 protocols and urged athletes and coaches to get vaccinated.
“It’s pretty simple; you have to get vaccinated,” McClelland said during media day. “If you are a vaccinated student athlete or coach, all protocols have been removed. I urge all student athletes to be vaccinated because if you are not, you cannot end the season based on these protocols and someone is waiting to take your place.”
According to the league, players and coaches who have not been vaccinated will handle the same COVID-19 protocols for the spring season virus tests three times a week and game days. Persons considered to be in close contact after contact tracing will be subject to mandatory 14-day quarantine. And teams that cancel games due to COVID-19 problems will get a loss and a possible fine.
Although both Florida schools now live in SWAC, they have one familiar MEAC opponent on schedule in the state of South Carolina. Other games include two non-conference answers and SWAC contests. But the move of BCU and FAMU to the conference created a trend between the eastern and western divisions of the league, which will remain throughout the story season.
Prior to its arrival, SWAC East consisted of Jackson State, Alcorn State, Alabama A&M, Alabama State and Mississippi Valley State. Since both Florida schools are now in the East, Alcorn State was transferred to SWAC West.
The Braves, who have won four of the last seven SWAC championships dating back to 2014 and are a program that has performed three times in the five-year history of the Celebration Bowl, will play in the Western Division with South Grambling State, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. In his conference championship matches over the past decade, Alcorn has played three times against South and three times against Grambling.
However, Alcorn – predicted to win SWAC West this season during Media Day – was the only school in the conference to decide to give up the spring season because of the COVID-19 situation after winning the conference title in 2019. Taurence Wilson, Braves ’senior defender, says playing wasn’t hard excited as he begins the fall season to clear the elephant from the room.
“When the decision was made, it didn’t suit me,” Wilson says. – When the coaches talked to us, everything made sense, but every choice has consequences. We had to give up the season so we could come back better.
– Some teams in the division have played during the regular season, so that is normal for us. We are ready to rule and conquer the West. “
Alcorn quarterback Felix Harper, who was pushed into the starting role unexpectedly in 2019 when star Noah Johnson crashed with injury, never thought he was starting QB at the university level.
Harper, a redshirt senior taught by former quarterback and West Virginia legend Pat White, says the season was a blessing in his preparation.
“It simply came to our notice then [me] whatever is coming, and I tell the defenders of my subordinates to prepare as if they were now a beginner, ”Harper says. “Pat made me grow as a player, and I’m grateful for that.
“I am ready to take advantage of what we have established as a program. We’re hungry, and as Coach McNair has told us, someone has something we want, and that’s another SWAC title. “
While no players landed on the league’s pre-All-SWAC teams, and the Braves leadership and championship football pedigree return to the grid, McNair’s effort to lead his team back to another conference title begins Saturday when Alcorn meets North Carolina Central in the 2021 MEAC / SWAC Challenge game , which includes ESPN College GameDay.
“This is a really big deal, and it’s a great experience for both our program and the members of this conference,” McNair says.
Shedeur Sanders will be fit for his father Deion this fall.
Eric Shelton / Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY Network
Alabama A&M – the reigning champion of the spring season – knows that all eyes will be on its program in 2021. Bulldogs quarterback Aqeel Glass, the league’s pre-season player, threw 1,084 yards and 13 goals in just five games, including a SWAC championship match against Arkansas-Pine Bluff .
“We have a good football team coming back,” says Bulldogs coach Connell Maynor. -We have the best defender, the best recipients, the best attack and a much better defense in the nation, so we have a chance to play.
The Bulldogs played only five games due to several COVID-19 epidemics with their opponents during the shortened season. But for Glass, who is the NFL’s potential prospect for the 2022 NFL Grafter and one of the 35 players on the Walter Payton Award (the nation’s best FCS player) Watchlist, he’s not content with one SWAC champion in a Bulldogs uniform.
“We’ve tried to keep everyone focused and mentally hungry, and we’ve not intervened,” he says. “Our season was no coincidence, and our time is now.”
In between the reorganization is the Jackson State team, which is full of high expectations. The views include the history of the program as the home of four Pro Football Hall of Famers, as well as the fact that Sanders coaches at JSU. The Tigers placed 4-3 in the spring and earned victories from NAIA opponent Edward Waters College, Grambling, Mississippi Valley State and lost to Alcorn to win their first season since 2013.
However, by Sanders standard – with everyone Media attention, cameras, exposure and status updates he has brought to the program – that was just the beginning of what he believes to be a smart, tough, fast and disciplined team competing for the SWAC Championships.
The Tigers will play eight of their 11 matches this fall on the ESPN online community. Sanders, who brought the HBCU’s best football recruitment class, added several players for the historic signing season for the program. During media days, however, JSU was predicted to rank third in the East after Alabama A&M and Florida A&M with just two players — Aubrey Miller Jr. and Keonte Hampton in the Premier League All-SWAC team.
“We’re the only team in the country where people expect to win in their first year,” Sanders said during media day.
JSU will be tested on a weekend weekend as Tigers face FAMU at the Orange Blossom Classic at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Tigers quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who is the son of Deion and could not play in the spring season, says he is excited about the challenge to lead the attack this season.
“We use SEC defense in practice, so it’s really a blessing to get it ready for the teams we play this year,” Shedeur says. “When you have a dad who is in the Hall of Famer, he pushes me every day because he expects greatness. No matter who is on schedule or in the division where the team plays, we have to prepare every week and we’re going to.”
The journey, in which 12 teams, two divisions and one champion will compete over the next four months to get to play in the Celebration Bowl – a post-season game taking on the champions of the SWAC and MEAC conferences – will begin on Saturday.
With 43 league games the growth of the conference has arrived on ESPN’s linear and digital platforms. And for players like Wildcats ’Mallard, that’s the moment he’s been waiting for.
“The person people saw in 2019 is nothing compared to who I am now,” Mallard says. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get there, but we’ve already failed in our own conference. No one talks about BCU, but that’s what makes everything so exciting, a chance to see who is really the best at HBCU college football. “
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Sources 2/ https://www.si.com/college/2021/08/27/swac-football-jackson-state-alcorn-alabama-am The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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