July means one thing in this business — Media Day season — and the SWAC didn’t wait around to make noise. The conference rolled out its 2026 preseason All-Conference teams this week, and Alabama State QB Andrew Body is the headliner. The man completed 70.6 percent of his throws last year, threw for 1,770 yards and 20 scores against a single pick in just eight games, and still found time to add 500 yards and four more touchdowns with his legs. That’s not a stat line, that’s a mission statement. He flirted with the portal this offseason, thought about it, and came right back to Montgomery. Smart move — Alabama State led every program with nine preseason all-conference selections, and it’s not close.
On the other side of the ball, Jackson State’s Kam Sallis grabbed Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and if you watched the Tigers last season you already know why. This defense held people to under 19 points a game and under 112 yards on the ground — that’s suffocating football. JSU’s now won the SWAC East four times in five years, and Sallis is a big reason nobody’s knocking them off that perch without a fight.
All of it gets put on record July 15 in Birmingham. Sheraton-Birmingham, all 12 head coaches, 24 student-athletes, seven starting quarterbacks in the building, and the league drops its Predicted Order of Finish right there. Keep an eye on Southern too — Marshall Faulk makes his first Media Day appearance as head coach, trying to pull that program out of a 2-10 hole from last year.
Baltimore’s Hosting Again — And This Time MEAC’s Bringing Backup
MEAC’s heading back to M&T Bank Stadium for Football Media Day on July 21, and they didn’t just bring the same show back — they brought reinforcements. Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor’s “The Pivot” is going to be part of the event, which is a real visibility play for a conference that’s been building momentum with the NFL.
South Carolina State walks in as the standard — back-to-back MEAC titles, and that Celebration Bowl win over Prairie View A&M still has to be one of the wildest finishes in the sport’s recent memory, four overtimes before Ryan Stubblefield found the two-point conversion. Delaware State’s DeSean Jackson is year two into his rebuild after a 4-1 conference mark, Howard’s bringing back a program legend in Ted White to chase a title they haven’t had since 2023, and Michael Vick’s got Norfolk State in year two of his own build.
Outside the football headlines, MEAC’s also expanding — women’s flag football and women’s golf are now championship sports starting this fall, pushing the league to 16 total sponsored sports. That puts MEAC alongside the CIAA as the only two HBCU conferences sponsoring flag football at the championship level, and with the sport headed to the Olympics in 2028, that’s not a small move.
CIAA and SIAC Have a Real Problem Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s the story that should be getting more attention: both the CIAA and SIAC are walking into their Media Days — CIAA July 15, SIAC July 22 in Macon — without a new TV deal. Their agreements with HBCU GO expired June 30, and as of now, nothing new has been signed. CIAA’s senior associate commissioner Marcus Clarke says Van Wagner is working through options and that there’s still interest on both sides, but “still interest” isn’t a contract. These are two leagues that built real revenue and real visibility off those deals, and right now that pipeline is open. Worth watching closely over the next two weeks.
On the field, the CIAA’s also expected to formally announce an expanded championship format at Media Day — giving third and fourth place finishers an extra game during championship week instead of sitting idle.
The Big Picture
Step back and the real headline of the summer is structural: SWAC, MEAC, CIAA, and SIAC have all unified behind one ranking system — the new Black College Football Poll, which dropped its first preseason rankings July 1. First time all four major HBCU conferences have gotten behind the same poll and All-American teams together. That’s a bigger deal than any single Media Day headline, honestly — it gives this sport one unified voice instead of four separate ones.
Media Day season runs SWAC and CIAA both on July 15, MEAC in Baltimore July 21, SIAC in Macon July 22. We’ll be all over every one of them.