The week-long drama over Texas A&M to the SEC appears to be entering its final stages. As we first reported on Tuesday, Aggie officials have been negotiating with the SEC office regarding a potential offer to join the league. It appears the SEC member schools will meet tomorrow (via conference call) to officially vote to expand the 12-member conference with the addition of the Aggies. TAMU’s Board of Regents moved up a meeting previously scheduled for next Monday, August 22, to this Monday. The agenda for this meeting includes an item to discuss the school’s athletic conference affiliation.
It appears that the Monday meeting was moved in advance of a Texas state legislative meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, where state politicians would grouse about the Aggies move. With the state legislature out of session, it appears that there is little to be done by that body. Tuesday’s meeting appears to be nothing more than a political event, something we detailed yesterday on this site.
What remains to be seen is whether or not Sunday’s SEC call will also include other potential new members to the conference. An ESPN.com report today indicated that the league could vote to extend invitations to Missouri, Florida State, and Clemson. Administration officials at all of those schools deny this, but there is reason to believe that other schools have been contacted. We linked Friday to a story out of Florida that indicated FSU and the SEC had long been in talks about a move.
At minimum, it appears that the SEC will soon be a 13-member league. No one expects that to be the case for long, though. With the Pac-12 and Big 10 recently adding members, it was only a matter of time before the esteemed Southeastern Conference would make its power play. Adding Texas A&M certainly qualifies as a power move. Poaching 2 ACC members and another from the Big 12 would certainly serve notice that Mike Slive and his team in Birmingham intend to keep the SEC at the top of the collegiate athletic food chain.
ALSO OF NOTE…
The Former Student Association (Aggie alumni organization) posted this to its website. It appears they are preparing for potential wrangling in the state legislature. This quote is particularly telling:
The decision on Texas A&M’s conference alignment – or any decision impacting our University’s future – is one that should be made by our University leaders. If Aggies, too, will engage their elected officials and ask them to consider Texas A&M’s need to do what is right and best for our school and our future, our President and other University leaders can focus solely on the best interests of Texas A&M today and tomorrow.
Also, it turns out that Aggie AD Bill Byrne is on Twitter. Mr. Byrne sent this message at 2:00PM CDT today:
Bill Byrne@SEC_Chatter gig ’em’
I think it’s safe to say right now that the bulk of discussion in the coming 72 hours will focus on a potential 14th member to the SEC. It looks like #13 will come wearing maroon and white.
The Blog Hawgs 