The Southwestern Athletic Conference has reached a new multi-year media rights agreement that will keep league football and basketball games on ESPN networks through the 2030-31 sports seasons, according to the Associated Press. The deal, announced Sunday out of Birmingham, gives the conference a long runway of national exposure heading into a season already buzzing with anticipation.
Per the AP, ESPN will annually air 10 regular-season football games across its linear and digital networks, the conference football championship game on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, and both the men’s and women’s basketball tournament championship games on a linear ESPN network. The rest of the basketball tournament rounds stay on ESPN’s digital networks, with four regular-season men’s basketball games also getting linear and digital coverage.
Just as significant: the SWAC and ESPN Events extended the conference’s participation in the MEAC/SWAC Kickoff Challenge and the Celebration Bowl for six more years, through the 2032 season. Those two games remain the crown jewels of the SWAC-MEAC rivalry — a regular-season opener and a postseason championship matchup pitting the two FCS HBCU leagues against each other in Atlanta.
The Kickoff Challenge dates back to 2005, when ESPN launched ESPNU, and this year’s edition sends Alabama A&M against Howard on August 29. Financial terms weren’t released, but the AP noted the SWAC also stood up its own streaming platform last year — a sign the league is building its media footprint on multiple fronts, not just leaning on the ESPN deal.