Aggies ‘ready’ for SEC additions
Texas, Oklahoma expect to inform Big 12 this week of impending departures from conference
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork has a message for any newcomers to the Southeastern Conference: “We’re ready.”
Texas and Oklahoma are preparing to exit the Big 12 and join the SEC, just as A&M did almost a decade ago. The Longhorns and Sooners are expected to inform the Big 12 this coming week and begin preparing for their pending exits — and how soon they join the SEC (whether by 2022 or as late as 2025) is to be determined.
“We believe that throughout our time in the SEC, Texas A&M has become stronger than ever,” Bjork told the Houston Chronicle on Saturday. “We’re the largest university in Texas and in the SEC. We have 550,000 former students. We’re knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff, and our women’s basketball team is the reigning SEC champion. We’ve got so many Olympians. There are so many great things and strengths about our program.
“As you look at all of this and our landscape, our position is, ‘Who wouldn’t want to join?’ The SEC is in the best position to lead in this transformative time in college athletics, and obviously there are others wanting to join us in that journey. Here in Texas, we’ve paved that way, and we’ve been leading that way over the last 10 years.”
A&M and other SEC programs apparently were largely kept out of the loop on informal discussions among UT, OU and the SEC in recent months, and Bjork said A&M is addressing that with the league.
“Those conversations are being had … there are definitely procedural matters that need to come forward, and those things are being discussed,” Bjork said.
A&M is pivoting from its early stance when the Chronicle broke the news Wednesday at SEC Media Days that UT and OU intended to join the powerful conference.
At that time Bjork, who was in attendance at media days, said: “There’s a reason why A&M left the Big 12, the way the Big 12 was operating and the governance. A&M is a flagship university, and with the size and scale of our place we should have our own stand-alone identity in our own conference.
“That’s why A&M’s leadership left at the time (in 2012), and that’s what we want to continue.”
Former A&M president R. Bowen Loftin, who helped steer the Aggies’ move to the SEC a decade ago, said his initial reaction to Wednesday’s news was “disbelief.”
The now-retired Loftin said 10 years ago then-SEC commissioner Mike Slive had a handshake agreement with A&M that the Aggies would have plenty of input into whether another school from the state could join the SEC.
Greg Sankey took over for Slive a little more than six years ago, while Slive battled prostate cancer. Slive died in May 2018.
“If these conversations with Texas and Oklahoma were without the knowledge of Texas A&M, that’s absolutely a breach of trust that I can’t understand,” Loftin said Saturday. “(But) I’m not sure we can do anything about it but just suck it up. I hate to say it that way, but if this is a done deal, which seems to be emerging now, I don’t know what options there are. We don’t want to leave the conference and go somewhere else.
“We need to suck it up and do our best to influence the (new) alignment within the conference. If we go to a 16-team conference or more, that has to be a pretty difficult conversation about who goes where. The older schools historically in the SEC want to maintain their rivalries.”
A&M exited the Big 12 nine years ago this month, and along with Missouri, another former Big 12 school, gave the SEC 14 teams, which it has been at since. UT’s addition to the SEC also would mean the Aggies and Longhorns would meet annually on the football field for the first time since 2011.
Bjork on Saturday emphasized the “we’re ready” aspect of UT and OU or anyone else joining the SEC shindig.
“Ten years ago when we joined the SEC, it offered that culture that we wanted in every facet,” Bjork said. “Collaboration, equality, excellence on and off the field. The culture is what makes the SEC the best conference in college sports.
“And protecting that is paramount in any decisions that are made.”
New A&M president Kathy Banks also offered in a statement Saturday: “The last few days have been challenging in many ways, and I recognize that change in college athletics often is unsettling for those who love their institutions. Rest assured, the chancellor ( John Sharp), our athletic director, and I, and everyone involved in this matter are focused solely on what is best for Texas A&M University.
“Since 2011, we have been a proud member of the best athletic conference in history and we
look forward to continued success in our SEC partnership for many years to come.”
The earth-shaking addition of the Longhorns and Sooners to the SEC would give the NCAA its first 16-team super conference and solidify the SEC’s standing as the nation’s most powerful league for years to come.
Meantime A&M’s board of regents will meet 5 p.m. Monday via teleconference to discuss “SEC issues.”
Following an executive session, the board will be in open session for “discussion and possible action on contractual and governance issues” relating to A&M and the SEC. The meeting is expected to simply be an informative gathering for the regents on the latest concerning realignment, and A&M had to announce the meeting to the public.