And the saga continues. The presidents of the 12 members of the SEC came together and unanimously voted to accept Texas A&M as their 13th team. But there are still some roadblocks along the way. One school withdrew its consent. Florida President and SEC Chairman Dr. Bernard Machen had this statement:
“We were notified yesterday afternoon that at least one Big 12 institution had withdrawn its previous consent and was considering legal action. The SEC has stated that to consider an institution for membership, there must be no contractual hindrances to its departure. “
There’s one team that might have a big issue with the Aggies abandoning the Big 12: the Baylor Bears, coming off a big win against perennial BCS buster TCU Horned Frogs. Baylor is blocking Texas A&M’s admission to the Southeastern Conference, even though it had written assurance from the Big 12 that all 10 member schools had signed off on the Aggies switching conferences.
Baylor’s withdrawl of their consent also comes after it’s been rumored the Pac-12 will expand to the Pac-16 and add Big 12 schools Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech. If this happens, Baylor would most certainly be left out in the cold from a major conference. It’s amazing that a small school in Waco, TX made it to the Big 12 to begin with, but with the conference’s impending disintegration, the Bears are doing all they can to protect their future.
Texas A&M had planned a celebration and news conference Wednesday but because of the pending lawsuit, that is now on hold. The Aggies are hoping to join the SEC next season and have already sold out football season tickets, in part from anticipation of the move. Texas A&M made a statement Wednesday:
“We are disappointed in threats made by one of Big 12 members to coerce Texas A&M into staying in Big 12.”
On Wednesday’s SEC coaches conference call, the Texas A&M subject came up and current SEC coaches shared their opinions: Florida Gators’ Will Muschamp thinks college football is heading toward four 16-team super conferences. LSU’s Les Miles says Texas players would rather travel to the Southeast instead of the West Coast, which gives the SEC a recruiting advantage.
UPDATE:
After being shut out of the Big 10 expansion last year, Missouri is making a big push to be the 14th member of the SEC, once the Texas A&M situation gets under wraps. The Tigers have started up a website, http://mizzoutosec.com to gain support. It looks like Baylor may be backing down on their withdrawl of consent and will be issuing a statement soon. Stay tuned.
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