Nah, let me take that one back. It could just be that the Southwestern Athletic Conference is so talented, its member schools so loaded on athletic and coaching talent, that they just beat up on each other and leave the standings black-eyed and bruised.

Or, it could just be that Prairie View A&M is going to run away with this thing.

Used to be that you could set your watch on Grambling, Southern and Jackson State starting fast out of the gate and never looking back. Through four games last season, six teams had at least two victories under their belts.

This year? Only Prairie view is undefeated, and Grambling and Texas Southern are the only squads with a .500 record.

One of the recurring themes among the surprisingly bad teams in the SWAC this season has been inconsistency at quarterback. Alabama State, Jackson State, and Grambling all had questions at quarterback late in the preseason, so its no surprise that JSU and GSU are in the bottom half of the conference in passing yards per game and passing efficiency.

It is surprising, however, that Jackson State and Grambling are among the top defensive units in the conference. But can you really call it “top” when the teams are allowing 19 and 20 points per game, respectively?

Now, this is not to let the other schools off the hook, particularly the Southern Jaguars. They are the worst defensive team in the SWAC, but its second best offensive showcase. Much of their average came in the form of a 55-3 blowout at the University of Houston, but conceding 34 points in a close loss to Tennessee State and rolling over Mississippi Valley State hasn’t exactly trumpeted their cause as a team ready to roll through conference play.

I mention the usual SWAC powerhouses because they are the programs that carry this conference, and a big part of black college football. The barometer by which which black college football is measured is usually gauged in the SWAC conference, so these teams going cold puts a freeze on the culture and exposure of black college football itself.

And it cools off the swag of their fans.

I feel bad for the SWAC fans, because history has shown they are among the nation’s best. But with the conference’s marquee teams struggling, and other notbale programs living up to or rebuilding expectations, its easy to see that the SWAC is the sorriest black college football product going.