"Optimistic" Aggies will join conference in time for 2012-2013; "no immediate plans" for 14th member
Texas A&M has been accepted as the Southeastern Conference's 13th member, league commissioner Mike Slive confirmed Monday night.
"In the 78-year history of the SEC, the conference had accepted the membership applications of only two institutions — Arkansas and South Carolina. Texas A&M is now the third," said Slive at a speaking engagement in Birmingham, Ala., according to SECSports.com. "We remain optimistic that Texas A&M will be a member of the SEC and have started to look at schedules for 2012-13 involving 13 teams."
Texas A&M's application was approved unanimously by a vote of SEC presidents and chancellors last week. The application came after Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin sent a letter to Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe on Aug. 31, 2011 stating his school intended to apply for membership in another conference.
Loftin said in the letter his school would be departing the Big 12 effective June 30, 2012, if the application were to be approved. Texas A&M has been a member of the Big 12 since the league's inception in 1996.
After Texas A&M was approved, Beebe sent a letter to Slive dated Sept. 2 informing the SEC commissioner that the Big 12 conference would take no legal action against the SEC as long as Texas A&M was a member of the SEC by 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Sept. 8.
However, the process has been slowed as several Big 12 members, in particular Baylor University, have refused to waive rights to any potential lawsuit. Further complicating the already unstable state of the Big 12 is Oklahoma's reported desire join the Pac-12. Orangebloods.com reported Monday Oklahoma will apply to the Pac-12 by the end of the month and rival Oklahoma State will follow suit.
The Big 12 lost members Colorado to the then-Pac-10 and Nebraska to the Big Ten last summer, bringing the league to 10 members. With the departure of Texas A&M, the league will fall to nine.
The University of Texas is reportedly actively trying to hold the Big 12 together and convince Oklahoma, and by extension Oklahoma State, to stay in the league. UT officials met with Oklahoma officials on Sunday to discuss OU's intentions, according to the Associated Press.
There is a bit of irony in the UT attempts, as Texas and its unprecedented 20-year, $300 million dollar deal with ESPN to establish the Longhorn Network has created unease and concern amongst other Big 12 members and was one of several major factors in Texas A&M's decision to jump to the SEC.
Slive reiterated Monday what USC President Harris Pastides told The Daily Gamecock in August, saying his league was pleased with its current situation and that Texas A&M approached the SEC.
"As I said over the past year or so, the SEC has had no particular interest in expansion," Slive said. "We were, and are, happy with 12 teams. If [Loftin] had not called me in late July, we had no plans to explore adding an institution.
"However, when President Loftin called we became interested. Texas A&M is an outstanding academic institution with an exceptional athletic program, passionate fans and wonderful traditions. While the SEC wasn't thinking about expansion, it was impossible not to be interested in Texas A&M. As you can see from the unanimous vote of our twelve presidents (and) chancellors, we would very much like to have Texas A&M as a member of our conference."
Slive also said there are no immediate plans for a 14th member to enter the league along with Texas A&M, and that the league is OK with having an uneven 13 members.
"When Texas A&M joins our conference, we don't have immediate plans for a 14th member," he said. "We aren't thinking in terms of numbers. We think about the strength of the SEC and the attractiveness of Texas A&M as an institution."