Sports And Legacy Go Live: Southwestern Athletic Conference Launches Streaming Platform

On July 16, Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland announced the official launch of SWAC TV — a new streaming platform that will feature not only intra-conference athletic events, but also original programming highlighting the people and moments that have shaped the history of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

According to HBCU Gameday, Dr. McClelland announced the streaming service during SWAC Football’s Media Day, and hailed the service as a potential gamechanger for the SWAC. The service will launch on August 1, and will be carried by most major streaming app stores, including Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google Play, and Android TV.

“For the first time in history, our fans and supporters will have a high-quality, technologically advanced streaming platform solely dedicated to broadcasting live events and delivering high-definition on-demand league content. We look forward to utilizing SWAC TV as a catalyst to tell the impactful stories and legacies—both past and present—that have helped shape the SWAC into what it is today,” Dr. McClelland said.

According to McClelland’s comments during his media availability period, the venture, which has its roots in existing infrastructure and viewership patterns in place at ESPN+, HBCU GO, and the SWAC’s own SWAC Digital Network, was practically a no-brainer for SWAC TV’s corporate sponsors, who saw the value in an elevated digital platform and didn’t need Dr. McClelland to sell them on it.

Dr. McClelland is looking to the platform—which will bring with it its own central studio show—to boost the conference’s exposure, enhance fan experience, and raise the level of officiating at all athletic events. The SWAC TV platform, the result of a collaborative effort between the aforementioned digital platforms, allows for fans to watch any sporting event on demand.

As McClelland told HBCU Gameday, “The beauty of it is now we don’t have to choose which games we think are going to be significant. All of them are going to be shown. We think our fans deserve it…it’s finally here.”

Long-term, what Dr. McClelland envisions is something similar to ESPN or the NFL Network, where games are archived and broadcast as part of a programming package, as he explained to HBCU Sports in an extended interview.

“We’re looking for our games to be archived for a significant amount of time. A part of our strategic plan is to get it right here on all of these platforms, then move to some form of free TV like Pluto, where we have our own channel and some televised network on linear TV,” McClelland told the outlet. “We want to be able to go back and show the 1984 game with Mississippi Valley State vs. Alcorn State.”

He continued, “The level of exposure we think it’s going to bring will be highly significant, and it’s going to be more than just football and basketball. We’re going to broadcast all of our sports. Olympic sports, women’s sports. It’s going to be an expanded opportunity.”

According to a press release from the Alabama A&M Athletics Department, Dr. McClelland believes deeply in the platform’s potential to fundamentally transform how fans, alumni, and supporters of the SWAC engage with the conference.

“The debut of SWAC TV is undoubtedly a game-changer for the Southwestern Athletic Conference. For the first time in history, our fans and supporters will have a high-quality, technologically advanced streaming platform solely dedicated to broadcasting live events and delivering high-definition on-demand league content,” Dr. McClelland said in the press release.

He continued, “With over a century of profound history and even brighter days ahead, we look forward to effectively utilizing SWAC TV as a catalyst to tell the impactful stories and legacies both past and present that have helped shape the SWAC into what it is today, which is one of the premiere athletic associations in the nation.”

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