SWAC Football Championship

The SWAC Championship , officially the Cricket Wireless SWAC Championship Game , is an American college football game that is held annually on the first Saturday in December by the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) to determine its football champion. The game pits the champion of the Eastern Division against the champion of the Western Division in a game that follows the conclusion of the regular season. From 2015 onward, the winner of the game has represented the SWAC in the Celebration Bowl. The game was held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1999 through 2012, and moved to NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, for the 2013 through 2017 playing's. Since 2018, the game has been played at a campus site, hosted by the participant with the higher ranking, with the exception of the 2021 spring game when the championship moved to its third neutral location at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the 1998 season, the SWAC announced that the league would be split into two divisions with the divisional winners meeting in a championship game.