What If? The Southwest Conference

Throughout the history of organized college athletics, many conferences have come and gone, from the Great Midwest Conference to the Dixie Conference. Many conferences were formed out of regional ties, more than money. However, few regional conferences have captured the imagination as much as the Southwest Conference. The Southwest Conference’s footprint can be seen across college athletics. You don’t have to look any further than this past year. Two of the former Southwest teams made it into the College Football Playoff. They both lost, but you know they made it at least. While it might not be shocking that a conference that lasted nearly an entire century would have a massive impact on college sports, the Southwest wasn’t able to make it into the new millennia as it was cut down by factors both externally such as greed and the corporatization of the college sports and also internally as some schools (cough cough Arkansas and Texas) had some wondering eyes for other conferences. The conference was founded in 1914 in the Oriental Hotel in Dallas, and the original members themselves would end up being the undoing. The founding schools were a true rogues' gallery. Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma A&M, now State, Rice, and Southwestern, which is now DIII. But the original plans had both LSU and Ole Miss to attend that meeting to become members, but those ultimately fell through as they had a suitor that would become a thorn in the side of the Southwest. Membership would change quickly for the Southwest, however, as Southwestern would leave in 1917, but they would be replaced by a school that would last until the final days of the conference at SMU. Oklahoma would leave in 1919 to join a new conference that would be called the Big 6 (more on them later), as Phillips College, which doesn’t exist anymore, would join for one year in 1920 and then leave in 1921. TCU would join in 1923 as Oklahoma A&M would exit in 1925 to join the Missouri Valley. The Pokes' departure would leave Arkansas as the only member from outside the state of Texas. Something that ate at them for a long time. The conference would remain like this until 1956, when a lonesome masked rider would come looking for a new home as they were on the run from the Border Conference, Texas Tech. The Red Raiders would be joined by another Texas team, Houston, in 1972, which ran from the Missouri Valley as fast as they could. The Southwest would remain with the same nine teams from 1972 on in Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Houston, and Arkansas. However, and unfortunately for the conference, a founding member would stir up many issues for the world of college sports, whether anyone in the SWC knew it or not. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma in 1984 would send shockwaves throughout the college landscape, as up until that point, the NCAA had been the one with all the power for TV contracts. Until that is on June 27th of 1984, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oklahoma, which said that the NCAA was holding a monopoly on college sports, which violated the Antitrust Act. This meant that the schools and conferences themselves could be the ones to negotiate their TV contracts, starting up a brand-new arms race for the top conferences and the first true wave of conference realignment. This would be the start of the dominoes falling as Arkansas, the school that was the most isolated in the conference’s wondering eye, would begin to look towards the east. The Southeast. Eight years after NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, Arkansas announced that they would be leaving to join the conference that took LSU and Ole Miss before the SWC was founded in 191,4, the SEC. Five years after Arkansas announced its move to Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech would also announce their departures from the conference to join the then Big 8, the former Big 6, to what would be known today as the Big 12, rejoining former members Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in 1996. This was the final death blow to the conference, as while the Arkansas departure hurt, the conference would go on. But losing four of the biggest brands in Texas sent the conference spinning down the toilet. The Southwest Conference would close down its headquarters in May 1996. With the remaining members, Rice, SMU, and TCU finding refuge in the WAC, and Houston joining Conference USA. 

But what if the Southwest hadn’t gone down in 1996? What if the remaining four members decided to stick it out? Where would the conference have gone for new members? Well, just looking at the other schools that Houston had founded Conference USA with, there weren’t a lot that stuck to the original idea of the Southwest. That of Texas schools and ones in neighboring states. As most of the CUSA were the remnants of the old Metro conference in the eastern US. There was one that met those standards, however. Tulane from New Orleans would be the most easternly team in the conference, and as a school that was not too far removed from their days in the SEC, they might have been able to take the move in stride. With the Green Waves addition, the SWC would be back at five member schools, so where do we turn to next? Well, the WAC who as mentioned took in the rest of the Southwest castoffs, had their issues as the writing was on the wall for the WAC as they began to get too big as taking in Rice, SMU, and TCU put them at 16 schools which at the time was the biggest conference, but they had teams in 4 different time zones. There was one team in particular that the castoffs joined the WAC with that fits the mold for the Southwest to a T. Tulsa, which at that point was looking to jump from the sinking ship known as the Missouri Valley, much like Houston had back in 1972. Would the Golden Hurricanes want to join the SWC? I'm sure that being paired with Houston, a former MVC rival, wouldn’t hurt, as Houston is about the closest thing Tulsa has to a rival. Tulsa would bolster the number of the Southwest backup to six. However, in the media rights gold rush that was happening, these six would not be enough to survive as a conference. But if the Southwest was to raid the WAC further, some new options come into play that could be very interesting, as lying in the ruins of the border conference that Texas Tech ran away from were two schools that held massive media markets. UTEP and New Mexico were both cast off in their own right from a conference killed by greed. As the Border conference had died in 1961, the conference failed to attract new members. Both UTEP and New Mexico would fit in nicely in this new Southwest conference. Rice, SMU, TCU, Houston, UTEP, New Mexico, Tulsa, and Tulane would make a decent enough conference, more so with what both TCU and Houston would become in the coming years. But it is doubtful that the Southwest would survive the next round of conference realignment that would happen in 2010, with the Big 12 exploding due to Texas trying to leave to join the PAC10 and taking former SWC members A&M, Tech, and the Oklahoma Schools along with Colorado. Leaving the Big 12 with si,x, which could have led Mizzou, who was looking to get out of the Big 12, to join rival Nebraska in the Big 10 instead of Rutgers. Which would have left the SEC at 10 teams and could have had Louisville, West Virginia, Tulane, and Memphis join the SEC, which would have sunk the Big East further, which could have......., but all of that is a story for another time.

What if the Southwest came back today? How would it look? Well short answer is like another group of 5 conferences. As all the former members of the Southwest aren’t looking for a different conference right now. Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, and Houston are in the Big 12, where TCU and Houston especially aren’t looking to regress. Texas, Texas A&M, and Arkansas are in the SEC with former member Oklahoma. And SMU is for some reason in the ACC as the only school in the Central Time Zone. Which leaves one school left. A school that has hopped from the SWC to the WAC to the CUSA to the American. A school that was famously clowned in a speech by a president. “Why does Rice play Texas?” Great question, JFK. Mainly, it was because of the regionalism of the conference and the fact that Texas and Rice are both research institutions. But I digress, for the Southwest to work, we have to set some ground rules for this exercise in thought. 1. We can’t bring any teams up from the FCS ranks, as doing so would be cheesing it a lot with schools that are ready for the jump. 2. If a team is joining a different conference in 2025 or 2026, they are off the table as they have committed to said conference. 3. We are bound by the original rules of the conference, as any school must be from Texas or a neighboring state. 4 we have to get to at least nine members, as that was the largest that the original SWC. Got it? Good! Let's start where we left off in keeping the SWC together. UTEP is off the board as they are moving to the Mountain West starting in 2026, but Tulsa and New Mexico are staying put, so they could still be brought in. The reasons for both have been stated previously. That gives us three schools so far. We continue the raid of CUSA with Sam Houston State, a Texas school, and New Mexico’s old running buddy, New Mexico State, as Sam Houston has become a standout and the model for how a school making a transition from FCS to FBS should go. As for New Mexico State, they have been a target for the MWC and Pac 12 in the past year for expansion, and they have their built-in rivalry with the Lobos. This now gives us five schools. Back to raiding the American, we stay in Texas with UTSA and North Texas, as UTSA and North Texas both are no-brainer picks to be in this type of conference, as both would be looking to elevate their status in college sports. With their additions, the members are up to seven. We stay in American and get one, I mentioned earlier in Tulane, bringing us up to eight. With the final two members, we go to the Sun Belt as there is a fast-rising school in Texas State, which has become a hot pick when talking about this latest round of realignment as a possibility for the Mountain West or the Pac-12. And finally we are going back to the state of Arkansas for Arkansas State who has been a steady constant in the Sun Belt since joining the FBS in 2001, giving the Southwest a five-state reach but having half of the members be that of the lone star variety in Rice, Texas State, UTSA, North Texas, and Sam Houston State with the border schools of New Mexico, New Mexico State, Tulsa, Tulane, and Arkansas State. For football, more than any other sport, it would be very interesting to see how some of the rising powers would mesh with Tulane, UTSA, and Texas State, all battling it out for control. How would a Sam Houston that just went 10-3 in their second year do? Could Tulsa find its footing in a conference like this? Would Rice finally regain its throne as a once mighty team in the SWC, which won 7 SWC conference championships? For baseball, how are things going? Rice wasn’t as strong in baseball until after the SWC collapse. Could a team like Dallas Baptist be brought in for baseball? Many questions could be asked about the what-ifs; however, at the end of the day, one thing remains true.

The Southwest Conference lasted longer than it had any right to. She died the death that she dealt herself. A buck riding beauty who tried to tame a bronc that she could not break, and tho she tried, she was bucked off several times with the departures over the years of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in 1920 and 1925. She climbed back in the saddle again and again with TCU, Texas Tech, and Houston, but that bronc was too wild. She may never ride again across the lonesome prairies under that big Texas sky, but her star shines on, and her ghost can be heard long after she’s left this world. Maybe one day someone will tame those wild mustangs in Texas, but none have been able to stay in that saddle as long as she had. Those stallions have been the end of many a conference from the MVC to the WAC, to the TIAA, to the Border, to TCU killing Big East Football, and of course, those mares stomped all over her as well. The Southwest Conference and its member schools were as wild as the people they represented and as the West itself. The lasting legacy of the Southwest may never die as long as its schools let college sports continue.