The Petulant Texans

The Texas House of Representatives Higher Education Committee has thrust itself into the middle of the Aggie Two Step to the SEC.  It is hardly breaking news for a politician to grandstand, so I don’t know how many folks are actually surprised by it.  Given his change of heart Monday afternoon, though, my radar went up concerning Rep. Dan Branch.  He cancelled a public hearing – one that would no doubt generate tons of media attention – once it became obvious that Texas A&M would not be heading to the SEC today.

Have you ever heard of a politician turning down an open press event?

Me either, and I spent the better part of 10 years working in politics.

Rep. Branch’s curious decision led me to consider what could possibly have changed his mind.

I am an optimist, so my first thought was this:  Perhaps Rep. Branch rattled his saber loudly and became satisfied that the point was made.  Regardless of what the Aggies ultimately decide, Rep. Branch can rest assured that he called attention to a matter that could have a negative impact on several Texas institutions of higher learning.  I mean…that is possible.

But it seems quite unlikely.  So I started thinking of other considerations.

I wonder how many times Rep. Branch’s phone rang in the past week.  More importantly I wonder who may have been placing those calls.  Maybe they were large Aggie donors in his district.  Maybe it was a sitting governor that happens to be a former Texas A&M student…with a very good memory and history for punishing his enemies.  Could it be that the fine folks of his Dallas district called and asked Rep. Branch what exactly he was doing?  After all, the Metroplex Republican is a free-market conservative that has little use for government meddling.  And he heaped praise on UT when they launched the Longhorn Network, citing their creativity for finding new revenue.

Any number of those things could have happened.  My guess is that some of them did.  But Rep. Branch has poked a bear.  No one required the legislative committee that he chairs to intercede.  Or…was their an external force at play?

I was tipped today to a blog post over at Midnight Yell, a blog similar to this one but devoted to all things Aggie.  This is the same site that got its hands on The Longhorn Network contract terms between Texas and ESPN.  These folks know how to get it done with research.

Remember the PR firm we referenced last week that had reportedly been engaged by UT in hopes of protecting its image as it became clear the wHorns would be seen as an “evil doer” in the breakup of the Big XII?  That firm is called HillCo Partners.  Its founder is a gentleman named Neal “Buddy” Jones, who is a proud alumnus of Baylor University.  That’s right…BAYLOR.

Midnight Yell does some great reporting on this.  If you’re intrigued by the story, you should definitely check out their work.  A few things from their report really jump off the page at me.  The most notable factoid I saw was that Mr. Jones, founding partner at HillCo, has also served time as a member of the Baylor University Board of Regents.  The Dallas Morning News notes that Mr. Jones played a very large role in keeping the Big XII together last year – by forcing Baylor down the throats of anyone that would listen.

Here is part of an email the DMN obtained:

From: Buddy Jones
Date: June 4, 2010 10:49:12 AM CDT
To: ADDRESSES REDACTED
Subject: Baylor Alert
To: Baylor grads in the 81st Legislature:
I have a critical issue that directly affects Baylor and it is very time sensitive. The Big XII and PAC 10 are both meeting separately today. According to a recent newspaper report, the PAC 10 may well issue an invite to all the Big XII South schools to join the PAC 10 – WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BAYLOR. In our stead, the PAC 10 is rumored to substitute Colorado. In this scenario, Baylor gets left out and this would be a major, major setback for our University. Perhaps a setback of immense proportion. The mere rumor of Baylor being left behind is harmful.
We cannot let the other schools in Texas (A&M, U.T., Tech) leave the Big XII WITHOUT BAYLOR BEING INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE. Long and short – if U.T., A&M and Tech demand that any move to any other conference include ALL TEXAS BASED TEAMS from the Big XII, we are golden. We need to be in a PACKAGE DEAL!

If you’re like me, your first thought is….BAYLOR?!  It seems like the baptist bears have a big fear of being rendered irrelevant.  (You’d think their play on the field had already done that.  HEY-O!)

The “smoking gun” link in this chain is – as always – the money.  It turns out HillCo Partners is quite active with political contributions.  That is far from unusual.  The best political consulting firms also give quite generously.  There is something to note, though, about where significant HillCo contributions have been routed.  I’ll let Midnight Yell deliver the punch line:

It is also interesting and of note to point out that 8 of 9 members on the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Higher Education have received campaign contributions from HillCo Partners in the past:

None of those members attended Texas A&M University.  Four of the nine received at least one degree from either the University of Texas at Austin or Baylor University.

Hearing Delayed

Tuesday’s scheduled hearing of the Texas House of Representatives Higher Education Committee has been postponed.  Evidently this hearing only needed to happen in the event Texas A&M’s Board of Regents had officially voted to move to the SEC today.  That’s the impression I certainly get, especially in light of Texas Rep. Dan Branch’s comments.

“While events may continue to evolve in the coming weeks, at this time, there is no immediate need to evaluate the merits of an athletic conference reconfiguration involving Texas A&M University and, potentially, other Texas public universities,” Branch said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “If the current situation changes, our committee is prepared to convene.”

I think it’s fair to say that Mr. Branch’s committee hearing has but one purpose:  Shame Texas A&M into staying in the Big 12 by showing how that move may undermine the viability of other state schools.  Interestingly, no hearing of this magnitude was scheduled with the University of Texas created its own television sports network.  In fact, Rep. Branch lauded that move:

“I do not think this Legislature ought to penalize people that are going on and being successful in maximizing their assets and getting a higher return and finding revenues that are not a tax base.”

“I certainly will do everything I can to make sure that people who take care of their institutions and raise them up and bring in more revenues and create value that somehow that wouldn’t be a detriment as they go through the appropriations process.”

More on this tonight

Aggies at the Altar

Yesterday did not work out like many of us thought it would.  In retrospect, I think many of us ignored some aspects of reality regarding the Aggies-to-the-SEC move.  At BlogHawgs.com, we ignored our own advice from earlier in the week.  Most notably this:

UPDATE VI:  Looks like everyone needs to simmer down and settle in for the long haul.  I’ve been led to believe this is indeed happening.  It’s a major move by both sides, so the terms of the deal will be thoroughly reviewed.  There does appear to be some validity to the notion that both aTm and the SEC are negotiating when the Aggies would start play in football.

While the Aggies may be waiting at the altar, I definitely believe it will be worth the wait.

One thing that is certain:  We had this well before the main stream media picked up on it, and we were far more right than wrong.  All of our sources proved trustworthy – if a bit too optimistic.  I still trust them completely since their information has proven to be very accurate.

Back to the story…

Here is what we know:

• Texas A&M reached out to SEC officials more than three weeks ago after making an institutional decision that the Longhorn Network and the current state of the Big 12 no longer benefited the Aggies.
• The SEC and its members understand the benefit of adding the Aggies and the television & recruiting markets opened thanks to including an elite Texas school to the conference’s footprint.
• Conversations will continue between SEC league members and Texas A&M.  Additionally, a 14th SEC member (at minimum) will likely be identified BEFORE an official invitation is extended to the Aggies.

Here is what we believe:

• Texas A&M will eventually be added to the Southeastern Conference.
• This process will take several months before the conference officially expands.
• The 14th school that will join at the same time as Texas A&M will NOT come from a state where a current SEC school resides.  (I’ve had my eye on Va Tech this whole time, and I still identify them as the #1 target.  More on that in a different column…)
• Any school that joins the SEC will have already announced its separation from its current conference before receiving an invitation.

Taking a step back, it’s easy to understand why this transition must take a long time.  The amount of legal concerns that must be addressed are multitude.  Given the huge amount of money involved, conference affiliation – and change – more closely resembles a Wall Street arbitrage transaction than conference realignment in the Arkansas Activities Association.  Of course, even the AAA faces legal threats now during realignment every two years.

This is a multi-million dollar transaction.  The Big 12 stands to lose significant revenue.  At least one report mentioned that the league’s ESPN deal can be voided if the league dips below 10 members.  And as we noted last week (hard to believe it’s only been one week since this posted) the Longhorn Network prods Texas to violate the Big 12 charter by showing more league games than previously agreed to by the league.

Essentially, this is a big ol’ mess.  And the Texas state legislature hasn’t even gotten involved yet.  That comes tomorrow.  Things fall into a slow trot when lawyers get involved.  That speed will look like Usain Bolt in the 100m compared to the ability politicians have at slowing down a process.

It’s going to be a long slog.  At several times throughout the process we will all doubt whether or not it will actually happen.  I firmly believe, though, that the Texas A&M Aggies will be members of the Southeastern Conference.  They may not be playing football in the SEC in 2012, though, which appears to be the primary motivation had to speed the process along.  I think most agree that waiting one additional year in order to avoid costly and time consuming litigation makes a ton of sense.

Of course…we could all be wrong, too.  Nothing is done until it’s done.  All signs, though, still point to the union of Texas A&M and the SEC.