Prairie View A&M coach backs SWAC move to all-NCAA scheduling

Prairie View A&M’s 2026 schedule already looks like a referendum on the SWAC’s old way of doing business. The Panthers lined up 12 Division I opponents, opened at Tarleton State on Aug. 29 and stacked Baylor on Sept. 12 with Stephen F. Austin on Sept. 19, a run that gives defending SWAC champion Prairie View the kind of résumé Jackson believes the league should have been building all along.

That is why Tremaine Jackson did not mince words when the SWAC approved a new policy requiring football schools to play only NCAA opponents beginning in 2027. The Prairie View coach called the league “five years behind” in scheduling philosophy and said the move was overdue, a direct shot at a system that has too often left SWAC teams with games that do little for postseason math or national credibility.

Jackson’s argument was not just about aesthetics. He tied the issue to rankings, perception and the brutal reality of how the FCS views the league, saying the SWAC being “10th out of 13” says plenty about the cost of the old model. In his view, if the conference wants to be treated like an elite Division I league, it has to schedule like one, not pad calendars with opponents that do not move the needle.

That is the point Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland pushed when he announced the change during a SWAC TV appearance at the 2026 golf championships. The SWAC said its 12 member schools voted in favor of eliminating games against non-Division I and non-Division II opponents, and McClelland said the new direction would stop the league from playing games that do not count toward its competitive goals. The rule takes effect with the 2027 season.

The timing matters because the 2026 schedules still show the remnants of the old approach. Southern is set to play Lincoln Christian University, Bethune-Cookman has Virginia University of Lynchburg, and Alcorn State has Baptist College on its slate, which means the conference still has one more cycle to clean up the calendar before the new standard arrives.

For Prairie View, the shift fits the way Jackson is already building. The Panthers entered 2026 as the defending SWAC champions, and Jackson came off a 2025 season that earned him SWAC Coach of the Year honors. He has not shied from the tougher road, and he dismissed the idea that easier scheduling should be the goal, calling criticism of elite nonconference matchups a loser’s mentality.

What changes if the SWAC fully modernizes? More games would count in the same competitive lane as the rest of Division I, the league would have a clearer pitch to recruits, and its teams would have fewer excuses for weak national positioning. Prairie View’s schedule shows the model: if the Panthers are willing to face Tarleton State, Baylor and Stephen F. Austin in the same month, the rest of the conference now has a path to follow.