HBCU football champions snubbed in 2024 SWAC preseason poll?

Florida A&M (FAMU) had a magical 2023 HBCU football season. The Rattlers went 12-1 overall and undefeated in the SWAC en route to the 2023 Celebration Bowl title and the designation as the undisputed champions of HBCU football. Despite its off-season coaching turmoil and transfer portal back and forth, FAMU seemed to have the pieces to be considered the team to beat in the SWAC coming into the 2024 season. That is until the release of the Predicted Order of Finish at the 2024 SWAC football media day, where the Alabama State Hornets were picked to win the SWAC East over FAMU this season.

Voted on by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors, Alabama State received 114 points to FAMU’s 104, the Hornets received the most points in the entire conference as Alcorn State’s 112 points was the next closest total.

Alabama State finished the 2023 season with a 7-4 record including a 21-17 loss to Division II HBCU Miles College of the SIAC and a 23-10 loss on the road in Tallahassee to FAMU.

While both teams lost key players to graduation and the transfer portal, FAMU leads the nation in incoming FBS to FCS transfers , boasting 30 transfers who were at least committed to playing “big time” college football, including three former Florida State Seminoles and players from top programs like the University of Miami and the University of Michigan.

Alabama State pulled in 4 FBS to FCS transfers during the off-season, hailing from schools like Air Force, Coastal Carolina, and Troy.

With FAMU having the better 2023 season and racking up more talent in the transfer portal, the thumb on the scale that might have tipped the balance toward Alabama State could be at the most important position on the field… Quarterback.

Alabama State added one of the top signal callers in the SWAC when former Texas Southern quarterback Andrew Body took his talents from Houston, Texas to Montgomery, Alabama to play for his second SWAC school.

The Corpus Christi, TX native made a name for himself in HBCU football as a freshman. Body finished the 2021 season as the Texas Southern University single-season record holder in total offense while finishing second in the SWAC and fourth-all time in single-season passing at Texas Southern.

Andrew Body started the first game of his junior season in September 2023 against Prairie View A&M but didn’t play after that. He comes into 2024 looking to reestablish himself with an Alabama State team known to run the ball well and play tough defense under head coach Eddie Robinson Jr.

Alabama State is sure to be one of the top teams in the conference this season but bumping an undefeated champion reloaded with FBS transfers to number two without a single game being played is sure to be bulletin board material in Tallahassee and a summertime reminder that no one creates intrigue in HBCU football quite like the SWAC.

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