Southwest Conference

rdf:langString Southwest Conference

rdf:langString Southwest Conference

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rdf:langString File:Swc-logo-tshof-1.jpg

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rdf:langString The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma and Arkansas. For most of its history, the core members of the conference were Texas-based schools plus one in Arkansas: Baylor University, Rice University, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas at Austin. After a long period of stability, the conference's overall athletic prowess began to decline throughout the 1980s, due in part to numerous member schools violating NCAA recruiting rules, culminating in the suspension of the entire SMU football program ("death penalty") for the 1987 and 1988 seasons. Arkansas, after years of feeling like an outsider in the conference, left after the 1990–91 school year to join the Southeastern Conference, although they did compete in the SWC in football for the 1991 season. Five years later, the conference precipitously broke up as Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech (which had entered in 1956) combined with the members of the former Big Eight Conference to form a new league, the Big 12 Conference, while Rice, SMU, TCU, and Houston (which entered the SWC in 1976) found homes in less prominent conferences (although TCU has since been added to the Big 12, and Houston will join the league in 2023).

rdf:langString Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference