Black Athletes in the Spotlight: HBCU Sports & Local Highlights
- The league reposted an edited Alabama State–Mississippi Valley State broadcast removing the fourth-quarter altercation footage.
- SWAC temporarily took the full game down from SWAC TV app and website after the contest.
- Both programs were fined $25,000 and multiple players received suspensions following the investigation.
- SWAC ruled both teams violated conference code of ethics and stressed an emphasis on sportsmanship.
- The conference has not publicly explained the decision to edit or briefly remove the game video.
Did the SWAC erase the Alabama State–Mississippi Valley State brawl from history?
It appeared the league altered the full broadcast of Alabama State’s 86–70 women’s hoops win from SWAC TV, then reposted it with all that wild fourth-quarter fight footage cut out.
The incident, which unfolded Feb. 12 in Montgomery, drew swift league action, including $25,000 fines for each school and suspensions for four players — one two-game ban for an Alabama State player and one-game penalties for two from MVSU and one from ASU.
A SWAC investigation ruled both programs violated the conference’s code of ethics through “unsportsmanlike behavior,” prompting the penalties in line with league bylaws. The league emphasized its “extremely high standard of good sportsmanship” and vowed ongoing support for fair play among its HBCU members.
Alabama State athletic director Jason Cable condemned the confrontation, stating it fell short of the program’s core values of “sportsmanship, discipline, and respect for the game.”
But if you didn’t watch the live broadcast or only caught the replay, the altercation was unavailable to viewers.
Where is the video?
While SWAC TV initially televised the game, it was temporarily removed from the app and website for a period after its completion. However, the other women’s games that night — Grambling State versus Prairie View, Arkansas-Pine Bluff versus Alabama A&M and Jackson State versus Bethune-Cookman — were accessible.
Some who only learned of the altercation through social media or media reports wondered whether video of the altercation was available.
“Where is the video?” a Facebook commenter asked.
“They took it down on SWAC TV, but someone said HORNET NETWORK,” another said in response to the question.
The SWAC later reposted an edited version of the Alabama State-Mississippi Valley State game that omits the chaotic altercation that occurred with 8:45 in the fourth quarter, with the Hornets ahead of the Delta Devils 63-50.
In a rebroadcast of the sequence, an ASU and Mississippi Valley State player become entangled at the free-throw line during a loose-ball scramble. The video then cuts to show a huddling group of Alabama State players before live play resumes, leaving out the altercation completely.
What was the SWAC response?
Hornets Radio Network announcer Graham Dunn, who was providing the play-by-play, made several references to the altercation throughout the remainder of the broadcast.
“Let’s hope we don’t have anything else happen tonight,” he says later in the game.
“A lot of interesting things have happened in the second half,” Dunn says at another point during a stoppage in play.
The SWAC, which launched SWAC TV last July as a hub for live games and highlights, has not responded to a request for comment specifically on the edit or its decision to remove the game — at least briefly — from the public.
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