The SWAC men's basketball tournament (popularly known as the SWAC tournament) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The tournament has been held every year since 1978. It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The winner, declared conference champion, receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament. It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The winner, declared conference champion, receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. On seven occasions, the SWAC champion has won an NCAA Division I tournament game (two being in the first round and five in preliminary rounds).[1]
The 1977–78 season was the SWAC's first as an NCAA Division I basketball conference, but it was not until 1980 that the champion went to the Division I tournament; most notably, the 1979 champion was Alcorn State, who went 27–0 but only received an NIT bid (where they lost in the second round) as they had "not yet completed the three years of adherence to a 2.00 average entrance requirement."[2][3]
The semifinal and championship SWAC basketball tournament games are held at the Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.[4] As of the 2017 tournaments,[5] they feature an eight-team, three-day layout with the quarterfinal rounds hosted on campus sites. This changes the previous 10-team, five-day tournament format. The higher seeded teams will host a combined eight games leaving two days for travel and practice rounds. The tournament concludes with the semifinals and championship rounds inside Birmingham's Bill Harris Arena. Winners of the tournaments earn automatic bids to their respective NCAA Division I tournaments. The championship games are nationally televised live annually on an ESPN network. In 2017, the trophy was named to honor Davey Whitney, the legendary coach that had won twelve regular season SWAC championships and seven SWAC tournaments, both of which being the most in conference history.[6]
^Texas Southern was not eligible for the SWAC tournament due to academic violations.[7]
^Southern, alongside Arkansas–Pine Bluff, Grambling and Mississippi Valley State, were not eligible for the SWAC tournament due to bad APR scores, but the schools were allowed to play due to a special waiver as the SWAC had just six eligible schools. If any of the four schools had won the tournament, the "team among the six eligible teams that advances the furthest in the tournament would receive the NCAA tournament bid." As none of the four ineligible schools won the 2014 final, this was rendered moot.[8]
^Southern, while allowed to play in the 2015 tournament, would not have been allowed to play in the NCAA tournament regardless if they won due to sanctions.
^Alcorn State, while allowed to play in the 2017 tournament, would not have been allowed to play in the NCAA tournament regardless if they won due to APR penalties; an Alcorn State victory in the tournament final would have meant the regular-season champion, Texas Southern, would receive the NCAA bid.[9]
^Grambling was ineligible to play in the SWAC tournament for the right to play in the NCAA tournament due to APR violations.[10]
