United States college athletics league
The
Southwest Conference
(
SWC
) was an
NCAA Division I
college athletic conference
in the
United States
that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from
Texas
, at various times the conference included schools from
Oklahoma
and
Arkansas
.
For most of its history, the core members of the conference were Texas-based schools plus one in Arkansas:
Baylor University
,
Rice University
,
Southern Methodist University
,
Texas A&M University
,
Texas Christian University
,
Texas Tech University
,
University of Houston
,
University of Arkansas
and
University of Texas at Austin
.
After a long period of stability and success, the conference's overall athletic prowess began to decline throughout the 1980s, due in part to numerous member schools violating NCAA recruiting rules, culminating in the suspension of the entire SMU football program ("death penalty") for the 1987 and 1988 seasons.
Arkansas, after years of feeling like an outsider in the conference,
[2]
left after the 1990?91 school year to join the
Southeastern Conference
, although they did compete in the SWC in football for the 1991 season. Five years later, the conference precipitously broke up as Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and
Texas Tech
(which had entered in 1956 from the
Border Conference
) combined with the members of the former
Big Eight Conference
to form a new league, the
Big 12 Conference
, while Rice, SMU, TCU, and Houston found homes in less prominent conferences, with TCU and Houston later joining the Big 12 themselves.
History
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
L. Theo Bellmont
, the University of Texas athletic director, sent out questionnaires to schools in Texas and neighboring states to gauge their interest in organizing an athletic conference. By March 1, 1914, a number of schools had responded favorably to the idea.
[3]
The first organizational meeting of the conference was set for April 30, 1914; since not all schools involved could send representatives to attend that date, it was ultimately held on May 5 and 7 at the Oriental Hotel in
Dallas, Texas
.
[4]
It was chaired by Bellmont, who originally wanted
Louisiana State University
and the
University of Mississippi
to join the conference as well, but they declined to do so. The Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference became an official body on December 8 at a formal meeting at the Rice Hotel in
Houston
.
Its early years saw fluctuation in membership;
Southwestern
(a comparatively smaller school) dropped out of the conference in 1916, and
Southern Methodist University
(SMU) joined in 1918, while
Texas Christian University
(TCU) became a member in 1923. Rice University left the conference in 1916, only to rejoin in 1918.
Phillips University
was a conference member for one year (1920).
Oklahoma
left in 1919 to join the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (later known as the
Big Eight Conference
), and was followed by
Oklahoma A&M
in 1925. However, the series between Texas and Oklahoma would continue as a non-conference matchup in the annual
Red River Rivalry
game held in Dallas. From 1925 until 1991, the University of Arkansas would be the only conference member not located within the state of
Texas
.
Prime years
[
edit
]
By 1925, the conference's name was shortened to simply Southwest Conference.
[1]
After its organizational years, the conference settled into regularly scheduled meetings among its members, and began to gain stature nationwide. The SWC would be guided by seven commissioners, the first of whom, P. W. St. Clair, was appointed in 1938. In 1940, the conference took control of the then five-year-old
Cotton Bowl Classic
, which further established the prestige of both the bowl and the conference. Texas Technological College (now
Texas Tech University
) joined the SWC in 1958 from the
Border Conference
, followed by the
University of Houston
for the 1976 season (Houston won the SWC football championship in its first season in the league).
The two glory periods of the conference were in the 1930s and 1960s. In 1935, the last year before the AP Poll, both TCU and SMU claimed the national title. The 2 teams had played in one of the first games labeled "game of the century" on November 30 of that year. In 1938, TCU won the AP national title. In 1939, the SWC made it back to back national titles when Texas A&M won the AP Poll. In the 1960s, the SWC was dominated by two teams, Texas and Arkansas. Texas won the
1963 national championship
, and Arkansas won a
national championship in 1964 in the Football Writers Association of America
(FWAA) and
Helms Athletic Foundation (HAF)
polls. In 1969, Texas won another national championship by beating #2-ranked Arkansas 15?14 in the regular season's final game (dubbed the "Big Shootout"). The
1969 Arkansas?Texas game
in
Fayetteville, Arkansas
, attended by President Richard Nixon, is usually counted among the greatest college football games ever played.
[5]
Texas also won the 1970 United Press International (UPI) National Championship (i.e., the coaches' poll), which until 1974 was awarded prior to the bowl games. Texas lost the
Cotton Bowl Classic following the 1970 season
to
Notre Dame
by a score of 24?11, giving the Associated Press (AP) Championship to
Nebraska
after they beat
LSU
by a score of 17?12 in the
Orange Bowl
.
Since its first
Cotton Bowl Classic
and lasting until 1995, the Southwest Conference Champion automatically received an invitation as the "host" team in the Cotton Bowl Classic game on New Year's Day in Dallas. Opponents usually were the runners-up from the
Big Eight Conference
or the
Southeastern Conference
, although
independents
Penn State
and
Notre Dame
were also often featured. From the 1940s onward, the Cotton Bowl Classic was counted among the four major bowl games, and often had national championship implications. However, in the 1990s, the game declined in importance, largely because of the decline of SWC prominence. In 1977,
Notre Dame
became the last team to win a national championship in the Cotton Bowl Classic by beating Texas in the January 1978 game. Texas may have been awarded the national championship in 1983 if they had won the January 1984 game, but they lost 10-9 to Georgia.
The SWC had many legendary players and coaches over the years. In football,
John Heisman
,
Dana X. Bible
,
Paul "Bear" Bryant
,
Darrell Royal
,
Frank Broyles
,
Hayden Fry
,
Lou Holtz
,
Bill Yeoman
,
Gene Stallings
, and
Grant Teaff
all served as head coaches in the conference. Some notable SWC players included
Davey O'Brien
,
Sammy Baugh
,
Bobby Layne
,
Doak Walker
,
Tom Landry
,
Bob Lilly
,
Don Meredith
,
Earl Campbell
,
Andre Ware
,
Mike Singletary
,
John David Crow
,
Lance Alworth
,
Dan Hampton
,
Steve Atwater
,
Joe Ferguson
, and
Eric Dickerson
. The trio of kicking contemporaries
Steve Little
of Arkansas,
Tony Franklin
of Texas A&M, and
Russell Erxleben
of Texas all kicked record setting field goals of 60 + yards in the same season.
The early 1980s were the glory years of SWC basketball, including the
Phi Slama Jama
teams at the
University of Houston
. However, the most consistent program during the last quarter of the 20th century was the
University of Arkansas
with Sweet 16 appearances in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1990, 1991, Elite 8 appearances in 1978, 1979, 1990, and 1991, and Final Four appearances in 1978 and 1990. Arkansas's famed Triplets -
Marvin Delph
,
Ron Brewer
and
Sidney Moncrief
- gave the rest of the league fits. In the early 1990s, the Razorbacks'
Lee Mayberry
,
Todd Day
, and
Oliver Miller
won three straight SWC regular season and tournament titles from 1989 to 1991, the school's last three seasons in the conference. The passion of Arkansas fans for their Razorbacks often overran the confines of SWC basketball venues, so much so, that Reunion Arena in Dallas (annual site of the SWC postseason tournament) was deemed "
Barnhill
South" (after the Razorbacks' on-campus arena) based on the numbers and intensity of Hog fans present.
Outstanding basketball coaches included
Nolan Richardson
,
Tom Penders
,
Eddie Sutton
,
Abe Lemons
,
Guy V. Lewis
,
Shelby Metcalf
, and
Gerald Myers
. Great SWC hoops players included the aforementioned
Triplets
,
Hakeem Olajuwon
,
Clyde Drexler
,
Vinnie Johnson
,
Jon Koncak
,
Alvin Robertson
,
Ricky Pierce
,
Darrell Walker
,
Joe Kleine
, Day, Mayberry, Miller, and
U.S. Reed
, among others.
The
Texas Longhorns baseball
program under coach
Cliff Gustafson
won national titles in 1975 and 1983, as well as titles under
Bibb Falk
in 1949 and 1950. The
Arkansas Razorbacks
also fielded fine teams that advanced to the College World Series. The Hogs finished 2nd in 1979, 3rd in 1985, and 5th in both the 1987 and 1989 seasons. The Hogs have continued this tradition since moving to the SEC, reaching the CWS four times under Arkansas alumnus
Dave Van Horn
, and were the 2018 national runners-up.
Texas A&M
rose to power in the late 1980s, going 58?5 in 1989 before losing twice in the regional championship round on
its home field
to
LSU
. The Aggies reached the College World Series in 1993.
Rice
began its ascent to college baseball's elite in the conference's final years under coach
Wayne Graham
, reaching the CWS in 1997, the year after the conference disbanded.
The
Arkansas Razorbacks
were dominant in track and field winning 15 SWC cross country team titles, 11 SWC indoor track team titles, 9 SWC outdoor track team titles, and an incredible 8 SWC triple crowns (cross country, indoor track and outdoor track champions all in the same season). During their SWC days, the Razorbacks won 14 NCAA national team championships and one NCAA team triple crown. The list of Arkansas individual SWC champions and individual NCAA champions is long. Standout coaches and athletes include the legendary John McDonnell of Arkansas, the winningest coach in NCAA history regardless of sport. Baylor's
Michael Johnson
, Texas A&M's
Randy Matson
, Rice's Fred Hansen, Houston's
Carl Lewis
, and Arkansas'
Mike Conley
all went on to win Olympic gold medals.
Final years
[
edit
]
The 1980s saw many of the conference's athletic programs hit by recruiting scandals and
NCAA
probations.
[6]
[7]
[8]
The only programs to escape probation in the 1980s were Arkansas, Baylor, and Rice.
[6]
[8]
[9]
Because of
repeated major violations
, in
1987
, the
SMU Mustangs football
program became only the third in NCAA history to receive the so-called "
death penalty
" (after
Kentucky
basketball in 1952?53 and
Southwestern Louisiana
basketball from 1973 to 1975). The NCAA canceled SMU's 1987 season, and limited it to seven road games for 1988. However, nearly all of the school's lettermen transferred elsewhere, forcing SMU to keep its football program shuttered for 1988 as well. SMU also remained on probation until
1990
. At that time, NCAA rules prohibited schools on probation from appearing on live
television
. As a result, the conference's market share in television coverage dwindled.
The SWC's performance in football declined precipitously. The last SWC football champion to win a bowl game was Texas A&M, who beat Notre Dame in the
1988 Cotton Bowl Classic
by a score of 35?10. Since then, the final eight SWC champions lost in their bowl games. After SMU's
second-place finish in most polls in 1982
, SWC programs usually were not serious contenders for the national title. For instance: Texas had strong teams in
1981
,
1983
,
1990
, and
1995
. Arkansas earned national recognition in
1988
and
1989
, and Texas A&M was competitive from 1985 to 1995.
However, by the end of their respective seasons, none of these football teams were able to remain in the national championship hunt.
On June 27, 1984, the
U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in
NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
that the NCAA could not punish its membership for selling their media content. As a result, individual schools and athletic conferences were freed to negotiate contracts on their own behalf.
The
Big Ten
and
Pacific-10
conferences sold their rights to CBS and ABC. Most of the rest of the Division I-A football programs (what is now called the
Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
) chose to sell their rights together through an organization called the
College Football Association
to
ABC
and
CBS
. The primary function of the CFA was to negotiate television broadcast rights for its member conferences and independent colleges.
[10]
By
1990
, the television landscape had changed and a number of the stronger programs saw opportunities for better deals outside of the CFA. This was spearheaded by Notre Dame, who left the CFA and sold their home game broadcast rights to
NBC
in time for the 1991 season.
[11]
When the Southeastern Conference (SEC) invited the University of Arkansas
[2]
and the University of South Carolina to join the conference in 1990,
[12]
it created shockwaves across the CFA. The other conferences in the CFA correctly assumed the SEC made these additions to create a better TV product with the idea of leaving the CFA.
[10]
The SEC represented one of the more valuable assets in the CFA. It seemed likely if the SEC departed, the other conferences could have quite a difficult time securing good TV deals.
[10]
In February 1994, the Southeastern Conference announced that they would be leaving the CFA and negotiate independently for a television deal that covered SEC schools only. This led
The Dallas Morning News
to proclaim that "the College Football Association as a television entity is dead".
[13]
In 1995, the SEC and the
Big East
broke from the CFA, signing a national deal with CBS. The SEC would earn a then-staggering $95 million from the deal. More significantly, this change in television contracts ultimately would lead to significant realignment of college conferences, with the SWC's demise triggering
the first
major realignment. (After the SWC's demise, another major realignment took place in the
mid-2000s
, with an even more dramatic realignment in the
early 2010s
and a third one
now ongoing
.)
In 1990, Arkansas announced its departure for the Southeastern Conference, marking the beginning of the end for the Southwest Conference. After the announcement, Tulane and Miami, then part of the
Metro Conference
, were both seriously considered by the SWC to join the conference as replacements for Arkansas.
[14]
In March 1994, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech accepted invitations to join with the members of the
Big Eight Conference
to form the
Big 12 Conference
. Soon afterward, SMU, TCU, and Rice accepted invitations to join the
Western Athletic Conference
, while Houston became a charter member of
Conference USA
. The
Bayou Bucket game
between Houston and Rice was the last football game played in the conference.
[15]
In May 1996, after the completion of championship matches in
baseball
and
track & field
, the Southwest Conference was officially dissolved.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Over the course of its 82-year history, teams of the Southwest Conference garnered 64 recognized national championships in collegiate sports.
In 1997, the official records of the conference from 1914 to 1996 were moved from Dallas to the campus of
Texas Tech University
, becoming part of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. The archive also contains an extensive assortment of images and memorabilia from each member university. The final commissioner of the Southwest Conference (1995-96) Kyle Kallander has the rights to all SWC brands and copyrights (he later served as commissioner of the Big South Conference from 1996-2023), and retired assistant commissioner Bo Carter is considered as the SWC historian.
Member universities
[
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]
Southwest Conference Members
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100miles
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10
9
8
7
6
5
4
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Membership timeline
[
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]
Full members
Full members (non-football)
Independent
Other Conference
Other Conference
Big 12 Conference
Founding members
Big 12 Conference
Subsequent members
Final members
[
edit
]
- Notes
- ^
Arkansas left prior to the dissolution of the conference.
- ^
Houston was invited to join the SWC in March 1971, and began play in all sports except football and basketball in 1972?73.
[16]
Cougar basketball joined the fray in 1975?76, and football was last to join for the 1976?77 school year.
- ^
1915?1917 were provisional seasons
- ^
TCU joined the following subsequent conferences: the
WAC
from 1996?97 to 2000?01;
C-USA
from 2001?02 to 2004?05; and the
MWC
from 2005?06 to 2011?12. In December 2010, TCU announced it would join the
Big East Conference
on July 1, 2012, but instead accepted an invitation to the
Big 12 Conference
in October 2011.
Previous members
[
edit
]
- Notes
- ^
Upon their respective exits, Oklahoma and Oklahoma A&M (Oklahoma State) joined the
MVIAA
. When that conference split in 1928, Oklahoma joined the
Big 6
(Big 8 upon Oklahoma A&M's arrival) while Oklahoma A&M joined the
Missouri Valley Conference (MVC)
. Oklahoma A&M subsequently joined the Big 8 in 1958.
- ^
Closed in 1998
Sports
[
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]
Men's basketball
[
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]
Baseball
[
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]
Commissioners
[
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]
Conference champions
[
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]
Conference facilities
[
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]
This is a listing of the conference facilities as of the 1995?96 school year, the conference's last. Capacities and venue names are also current for 1995?96.
School
|
Football stadium
|
Capacity
|
Basketball arena
|
Capacity
|
Baseball Stadium
|
Capacity
|
Baylor
|
Floyd Casey Stadium
|
50,000
|
Ferrell Center
|
10,084
|
Old Baylor Ballpark
|
1,500
|
Houston
|
Astrodome
|
56,000
|
Hofheinz Pavilion
|
9,000
|
Cougar Park
|
4,000
|
Rice
|
Rice Stadium
|
70,000
|
Autry Court
|
5,000
|
Cameron Field
|
1,000
|
SMU
|
Cotton Bowl
/
Texas Stadium
|
68,000 / 65,675
|
Moody Coliseum
|
9,000
|
No team
|
Morrison-Bell Field (program ended in 1980)
|
Texas
|
Texas Memorial Stadium
|
77,500
|
Frank Erwin Center
|
16,300
|
Disch?Falk Field
|
6,649
|
Texas A&M
|
Kyle Field
|
70,210
|
G. Rollie White Coliseum
|
7,800
|
Olsen Field
|
6,100
|
TCU
|
Amon G. Carter Stadium
|
44,008
|
Daniel?Meyer Coliseum
|
7,200
|
TCU Diamond
|
1,500
|
Texas Tech
|
Jones Stadium
|
50,000
|
Lubbock Municipal Coliseum
|
8,344
|
Dan Law Field
|
5,500
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Pfeifle, Eric.
"Southwest Conference"
.
Handbook of Texas Online
.
Texas State Historical Association
. Retrieved
April 22,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Arkansas finally catching up in the SWC Hall"
.
wholehogsports.com
. Retrieved
September 22,
2022
.
- ^
"CONFERENCE SEEMS TO BE ASSURED FACT"
.
San Antonio Light
. Austin, Texas. March 1, 1914
. Retrieved
November 28,
2013
.
- ^
"DATE IS CHANGED"
.
San Antonio Light
. Austin, Texas. April 19, 1914
. Retrieved
November 28,
2013
.
- ^
Schexnayder, C. J. (April 9, 2013).
"The Big Shootout: The documentary of the 1969 Texas vs Arkansas game"
.
Football Study Hall
. Retrieved
September 22,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Watterson, John Sayle (2002).
College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy
. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 372.
ISBN
978-0-8018-7114-6
.
- ^
Arthur A. Fleisher; Arthur A. Fleisher III; Brian L. Goff; Robert D. Tollison (1992).
The National Collegiate Athletic Association: A Study in Cartel Behavior
. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 119.
ISBN
978-0-226-25326-8
.
- ^
a
b
"0:00 To Go"
.
SI Vault
. October 30, 1995. Archived from
the original
on June 20, 2010
. Retrieved
January 4,
2009
.
Time has run out on the Southwest Conference, but what a time it was
- ^
Fertak, Auston (July 2013).
"The Break-Up of the Southwest Conference"
(PDF)
.
Houston History
. Vol. 10, no. 3
. Retrieved
December 15,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
"30 years ago: How May of 1990 reshaped the SEC"
.
www.secsports.com
. Retrieved
September 22,
2022
.
- ^
Sandomir, Richard (August 25, 1991).
"COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
April 6,
2008
.
- ^
"25 years ago today, South Carolina accepted the SEC's invitation to join"
.
Saturday Down South
. September 25, 2015
. Retrieved
September 22,
2022
.
- ^
Maisel, Ivan (February 12, 1994).
"SEC OFFICIALLY LEAVES CFA; BIG EAST WILL FOLLOW SOON"
.
The Dallas Morning News
. Retrieved
August 25,
2012
.
- ^
"Miami, Tulane head list of considerations for SWC addition"
(PDF)
.
The Battalion
. September 17, 1990
. Retrieved
March 5,
2024
.
- ^
Khan, Sam Jr.; Wilson, Dave (December 2, 2020).
"
'I don't wish either of them well': The demise of the Southwest Conference, 25 years later"
.
ESPN
. Retrieved
December 9,
2020
.
- ^
"On the Threshold of Respectability"
.
Lubbock Avalanche Journal
. March 28, 1971
. Retrieved
July 26,
2014
.
- ^
"Ex-SWC Commissioner Fred Jacoby, 80, dies"
.
Longview News-Journal
.
Longview, Texas
. March 16, 2008
. Retrieved
May 16,
2017
– via newspapers.com.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Tips, Kern (1964).
Football, Texas Style: An Illustrated History of the Southwest Conference
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co.
ASIN
B0007E7BKQ
.
- Pennington, Richard (1987).
Breaking the Ice: The Racial Integration of Southwest Conference Football
. Jefferson, N.C.: MacFarland & Co.
ISBN
0-89950-295-4
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Teams (1991)
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Championships & awards
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