Overhead at the SWAC Championship Game
Don't look for the Heritage Bowl, dormant since 1998, to come back next year. MEAC Commissioner, Dr. Dennis Thomas, who was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame Friday, says the game will not return until it matches the champions of the SWAC and the MEAC. The game went away after several years of matching the SWAC champion against an MEAC representative, usually someone other than its champion who received an automatic bid to the NCAA Div. I-AA playoffs. Thomas believes a match of the two champions could be a huge draw and produce a huge payday for both conferences but right now all the pieces are not in place to pull it off. Grambling State Offensive Co-ordinator Melvin Spears is one of the names in the hat to be the new coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Spears, who has had a successful run with Head Coach Doug Williams at Grambling, was reportedly asked to apply for the job by a UAPB official.
The L. C. Cole era at Alabama State is officially over. Just two days before the Championship Game, the school announced that the embattled former coach's contract has been terminated after the president found that he had willfully violated some school and NCAA rules. Cole says he will appeal the decision. Cole was suspended on August 1, right after the preseason SWAC press conference as the school investigated a series of allegations of improprieties in his four-year tenure. The move may open the door to remove the interim title from coach Charles Coe III, who led the Hornets to the 2003 SWAC Championship Game. Coe said he will be meeting with President Joe Lee this week about the permanent position and he says he wants the job.
Marino Casem delivered a stirring speech at the SWAC Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony Friday afternoon. The former Alcorn State and Southern football coach and athletic director told a packed house at the Sheraton Hotel about the outstanding legacy of the conference and urged the young people in attendance to continue that fine tradition.
SWAC officials announced that all four rounds of the men's and women's basketball tournament will be played at the Fair Park Arena in Birmingham in March 2004. The opening round games have been played on the campuses on the higher seeded teams since 1999. The top eight men's and women's teams will now come to Birmingham for quarterfinals through finals play.
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.
