SWAC Preview: 2026-27 College Basketball Predictions & Best Bets Recap
Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac), Troy Chewning (@Troychewning) and Cannabis Capper (@CannabisCapper) are back with the 2026-27 SWAC college basketball preview. Mike Davis lands at Mississippi Valley State, and the crew splits between Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman to win the league.
Monday Night SWACtion Is Back And So Is The Chaos
Ryan McIntyre says the SWAC will always have a special place in their hearts, and this preview proves it. Troy Chewning and Cannabis Capper join him for the Thursday happy hour. Cap even went out of his way to request this league on the schedule. So the show opens on a story nobody had on their bingo card. Qin Feng Pang, formerly of Monroe University, was detained by ICE after reportedly overstaying his visa. Cap first listed him as questionable for opening night. But Mac and Troy downgraded him to doubtful, because the SWAC is not getting anybody to skip the line. A Kentucky women’s player detained earlier in the summer also waited around 60 days to get her visa sorted out. Then the jokes start, and they never really stop.
The SWAC love runs deep on this panel. Cap ranks this show among his favorite previews every year, because the home court environments are solid and the bands are lit. He also thinks the arrow is pointed up for the league this season. Mac’s advice is to skip the NIL T-shirt and buy a network that tips games on time. In this league the game always tips 30 minutes later than advertised. Then the feed just sits there saying waiting for connection, and nobody knows why. So the Monday night standalone games are back, delays and all, and the guys could not be happier about it.
Prairie View’s Run And The One Seed Curse
Last year showed how little seeding means in this league. Prairie View won the tournament out of the eight hole after knocking off Bethune-Cookman, the regular season champ. Colby Dant (@thecolbyd) was devastated, because his Bethune guys won the regular season and still went down. Mac points out the one seed has lost early something like four of the last five years. Reggie Theus, now in year six, also won coach of the year. Cap cashed Bethune for the regular season title at about two to one. Then there was everybody else. Grambling, Alabama State and Alcorn State all went 7-11, and Mississippi Valley State finished 3-30. So outside Bethune and the Delta Devils, every team landed within four games of each other.
Cap liked the step FAMU took last year and thinks Prairie View is building on that tournament bid. But the program that caught his eye is Alabama State, because of how that roster was put together. Troy is watching Texas Southern instead. The school named a coach the players did not really want, and the players then staged a walkout. His notes on that one just say Whoops. He also flagged Charlie Ward and FAMU, since the eligibility of Sanders could swing the whole conference. If Sanders is available, Troy has FAMU as a team everybody should be watching this winter.
Mike Davis Lands At Valley With A Brutal Road Slate
The coaching board is a mix of SWAC lifers and new faces. Theus, Bozeman at Pine Bluff and Byron Smith at Prairie View are the veterans. Kevin Johnson is also in his fourth year at Southern and has done a nice job. Coaches hop around inside this league, too. Dante Jackson went from Grambling to Alabama A&M, and Patrick Crary moved from FAMU to Grambling. Then come the first-year hires. Corey Lowery takes over Texas Southern and Chris Wright lands at Alabama State. Trey Johnson gets promoted from within at Jackson State, because Mo Williams left to be an associate head coach under Mark Pope at Kentucky.
The hire nobody expected is Mike Davis at Mississippi Valley State. He has won tournament games at Texas Southern and took UAB to the dance. So Mac could not believe he took this gig. Cap figures promises were made about spending, and he thinks the bar is simply making Valley not a punchline. But Davis also had a 1-31 Detroit team in his last head coaching job. Then there is the schedule, which Troy called the most extreme case of selling yourself out for games in Division I. The non-conference run includes Oklahoma, Oregon, Michigan, UConn, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Baylor. And New Mexico, sprinkled into the middle of it, might be the funniest stop on the tour.
Stock Up On Prairie View, Stock Down On Jackson State
Cap is buying the Prairie View momentum hard. They finished eighth last year, and he floated a top-three finish this time. Anthony Goss comes over from Charleston Southern to start in the backcourt, and Davion Williams flips from Alcorn State. Jarrett Harris also arrives from Wyoming, and those drop-downs from bigger conferences tend to hit in the SWAC. But the name that has Cap fired up is a 240-pound forward from Shelton State Community College. His coach called him the Jadeveon Clowney of basketball and said he looks like an All-Pro defensive end. So Cap is picturing a rim-protecting demon. He just hopes somebody tells the kid how many fouls he has.
Troy goes with FAMU, who finished third last year. If Sanders is eligible and Jayden Joseph arrives as advertised, he sees Charlie Ward challenging for the title. Joseph is probably the best freshman recruit in the conference. Troy also tossed in Valley as a stock up, because you cannot buy it any cheaper than right now. Mac’s pick is Alabama A&M and Dante Jackson. Jackson won the regular season at Grambling in ’23 and ’24, then finished fourth in year one in Huntsville. Cap added Alabama State, which landed Michael James from Valley after he made All-SWAC on a last-place team. And Chris Wright won 73% of his games at the NAIA level.
Stock down was harder to pin. Troy floated Southern because they finished second last year. But Kevin Johnson has been in the top three every season, so Mac pushed back on that fade. Jackson State ends up as the real answer for both Troy and Cap. They lose Ruffin and Mo Williams, with a first-year head coach stepping in. Cap also says the program feels like it lost its identity, which is odd for a school you would expect to have money. Mac thinks that explains why Williams left. Then again, his son Mason Williams is a four-star point guard at Kentucky, so he went to coach his kid.
SWAC College Basketball Preview: FAMU Or Bethune-Cookman On Top
Who wins the league comes down to two programs. Cap steals Troy’s thunder and takes Florida A&M, because he likes Charlie Ward and the roster. The one question mark is Sanders, who last Cap heard got his injunction on August 18th. Troy is on FAMU too. He thinks Jayden Joseph gets a stage to show off and could land on a big-name team next year. But Mac goes the other way with Bethune-Cookman. They are the second oldest team in the country, and he still thinks they are a level above everybody. So give him Reggie Theus going back-to-back in the regular season, even after Dr. Bradley signed a pro contract in Crete.
Cap and Troy both slot Bethune second, and both admit a Bethune title would not be shocking. Cap is also all the way back in if Bradley somehow gets another year of eligibility. Mac puts his Alabama A&M Bulldogs second. At three, Cap has Alabama State making the jump and Troy has Alabama A&M. Mac goes Prairie View, off last year’s magical tournament run. Cap then puts Prairie View fourth, while Troy and Mac both trust Kevin Johnson and keep Southern at four. So Mac’s FAMU lands fifth, because this is the SWAC and he wants to see everybody eligible first. Cap has Alabama A&M fifth and Troy has Prairie View there.
The Middle Of The Pack And Valley At The Bottom
The middle of the board is where the rankings split. Cap has Southern sixth, which matters later, and Jackson State seventh in the middle of the pack where they have been. Mac has Alabama State sixth and Grambling seventh, calling Patrick Crary’s group a proud program. Cap puts Grambling eighth. Somebody in the chat even pitched Grambling as a super dark horse. Mac rolls with Texas Southern at eight, new regime and all, while Cap and Troy have them ninth. Then Jackson State drops to ninth for Mac and tenth for Troy. Troy also mentioned Pine Bluff could still be pretty good if Kyion Williams is eligible.
The bottom is close to unanimous. Mac has Alcorn tenth and Pine Bluff eleventh. Outside of last year, Bozeman’s teams have mostly finished somewhere between eighth and eleventh. Cap flips it, with Pine Bluff tenth and Alcorn eleventh. Everybody has Valley twelfth. Mac likes the Mike Davis hire but says the Delta Devils have to prove it first. He does think they could be chippy in conference play. Cap agrees the hire brings credibility. But the fix takes multiple years, and their best player stayed in the conference. So an impressive Valley night this year is a buy-game loss by fewer than 20 points.
Tournament Picks, Player Of The Year And Coach Of The Year
The conference tournament is where history says to get weird. Mac ran through it. Prairie View won as the eight seed last year, and Alabama State won from the four spot the year before. Eight seeds have also won it multiple times. Cap has FAMU as his one seed, so in this league they have to lose. He takes Southern instead as his six seed and feels pretty good about it. Troy goes with the Reggie Theus revenge tour and Bethune-Cookman. But Mac rides Dante Jackson and Alabama A&M back to the dance. Jackson won this tournament in ’24, and Mac thinks he gets it done again.
Player of the year is close to a consensus on Mike James of Alabama State. Cap and Mac both take him, because he already made all-conference at Valley and now has a better program around him. Troy called James a great pick and floated Jayden Joseph as a freshman flier. He also joked about the Boskovic kid who transferred to Bethune winning it. Coach of the year is Charlie Ward for Cap and Troy, since FAMU should take a jump. Mac doubles down on Dante Jackson instead. That makes 11 conferences down and 21 to go.
Next up, the schedule Noah Bieniek (@NoahB77_) put together has the Summit and Southland previews coming tomorrow. That one may be just Mac and Troy, so turn on your notifications. Cap, meanwhile, is spending a few more days in Atlanta with his family. He swears he will not be at Magic City, because his parents and wife were listening downstairs. So the SWAC is in the books, and the FAMU believers are waiting on one eligibility ruling.
Podcast Chapters
00:00 Download the SGPN App Today!
01:12 SWAC Thursday Happy Hour
02:37 Qin Feng Detained by ICE
06:51 Last Year Recap
09:44 Coaches & Mike Davis at Mississippi Valley
15:56 Stock Up, Stock Down
22:37 Who Wins the League: FAMU & Bethune
32:29 Who Wins the Conference Tournament
34:02 Player of the Year & Coach of the Year
36:05 Sign-Off & Socials
