With just a couple minutes to go in Jackson State football’s game against Mississippi Valley State, the public address announcer took the opportunity to make a much-awaited announcement.He read off scores of two other SWAC games: Bethune-Cookman’s 45-17 loss to Southern and Alabama A&M’s 31-10 loss to Prairie View A&M.The crowd at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium erupted in cheers after hearing both results. This was because those losses and JSU’s 38-7 win over Mississippi Valley State (3-6, 2-4 SWAC) on Nov. 7 mean the Tigers (7-2, 4-2) now, once again, sit atop the SWAC East standings and control their own path to the SWAC Championship game.The Tigers are tied for first in the division with Alabama A&M, but a win over AAMU from Oct. 3 gives Jackson State the tie breaker.How Jackson State got back into SWAC Championship game contentionJust two weeks ago, following a loss to Bethune-Cookman, JSU was seemingly out of contention. However, the Wildcats suffered a 63-21 drubbing vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff that kept JSU’s hopes alive.Entering the day, the Tigers needed both the Wildcats and Bulldogs to lose another game to create an opening for them to take the top spot.“A lot of teams, when you don’t think you have a chance to go play for a championship, they’ll be ready to throw in the towel,” Jackson State coach T.C. Taylor said. “These dudes just put the pads on, put the helmets on last week (during an open week) and got after it, and you see what we got tonight.”Taylor said JSU’s effort vs MVSU was a result of being “pissed off” after the second loss, which dropped the Tigers from first to third in the SWAC East. He encouraged his team to “stay up” after losing and to “take care of what we can control” to have a chance of meeting the program’s expectation of making the title game.It helps that JSU has multiple players who have plenty of championship experience.In his time at JSU, sixth-year tight end Jency Riley Jr. has been to four SWAC Championship games and three Celebration Bowls. As one of the team’s leaders, he’s able to keep things in perspective for the other players.“We understand what’s at stake,” Riley said. “Previous to this game, we weren’t happy that we were there, but we understood that we still had to go 1-0 each and every week, and where the cards fall, we’ll see at the end of the season. But the message is just keep going 1-0. We go 1-0 these next two weeks, we’ll be in a good spot come first week of December. And then after that, the goal is to go 1-0 two more times.”If JSU wins out, it will clinch the division title. The final two games are on the road against Alabama State (5-4, 3-3) on Nov. 14 and Alcorn State (6-4, 4-2) on Nov. 21. The Braves have the conference’s top offense, while the Hornets field a top three defense.AAMU (7-3, 4-2) will close out its season against Texas Southern (3-6, 2-4) and MVSU, which both rank in the bottom half of the confe
