Loftin catalyst for move to SEC 10 years ago
COLLEGE STATION — An unlikely source a decade ago helped then-texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin consolidate the Aggies fan base on a potential shift to the Southeastern Conference from the Big 12.
“The Longhorn Network was a blessing in disguise for us,” Loftin recalled Tuesday of Texas’ unintended help in the move. “The A&M world was not unified about what to do in 2010. But the LHN changed everything. It went from 50-50 (percent) to 95-5. I thank Texas for catalyzing the sense that A&M had to do something, something bold and something that was really meant for A&M.
“Something that did not necessarily link us in the future to that school in Austin.”
Ten years ago this July in the A&M regents building near Kyle Field, Loftin declared the Big 12 in a state of “uncertainty” to a handful of reporters because of the on-tap Longhorn Network via ESPN, and the network’s intentions (at the time) to televise high school games featuring UT recruits or perhaps recruiting targets.
I plopped down on a bench in the regents building and posted Loftin’s sentiment to a relatively new social medium at the time — Twitter. The tweet caught cyber fire and Loftin had suddenly and publicly tipped the first domino toward A&M and Missouri’s eventual exits of the Big 12 for the SEC.
“I had not pre-thought my remarks — it’s very difficult to prepare yourself for those kinds of moments,” Loftin remembered. “I said what I believed was true.”
Less than a week later at the 2011 Big 12 media days in Dallas, then-league commissioner Dan Beebe vowed to a handful of reporters that Loftin was simply describing the Longhorn Net
work as an upstart enveloped in “uncertainty.” Having been present in College Station at the time of Loftin’s declaration and miffed Beebe was portraying media reports as erroneous, I assured him Loftin indeed was speaking about the state of the Big 12. The moment was admittedly awkward.
Back in College Station around the same time, Loftin, who figured a move to the SEC as a positive on multiple fronts, was practically rubbing his hands together at the way things were falling in place in galvanizing the A&M community.
“Once it really became clear to us the way the Longhorn Network was going to be, it really reenergized everything,” Loftin said. “Thanks to our friends at Texas, we had a lot more unity. … It made 2011 possible as far as being able to navigate the move, and we got it done.”
A year before in the summer of 2010, a latehour pledge by Beebe of more money for conference members saved the Big 12 from essentially disbanding (and A&M exiting for the SEC at that time) after Nebraska already had bolted for the Big Ten and Colorado left for the Pac-12.
“We got stopped before we got to the finish line … but the main thing was I didn’t believe we had resolved anything,” Loftin said of the 2010 outcome. “My focus then for the latter half of 2010 and a little bit of 2011 was, what can Texas A&M do to try and make the Big 12 less uncertain, and more stable?” UT’S announcement of the LHN through a $300 million deal with ESPN in January 2011 abruptly changed Loftin’s perspective, and A&M and then Missouri, following methodical, red-tapecrammed progressions, announced their exits of the Big 12 for the SEC in the fall of 2011. They officially joined the league on July 1, 2012.
Along the way Baylor did everything in its power to slow A&M’S move from the Big 12, fearing the Aggies’ exit would ultimately lead to a dissolving of the Big 12 and Baylor desperately searching for a decent conference to call home. Then-baylor president Ken Starr threatened litigation before it became evident nothing was going to stop A&M’S move to the SEC.
Loftin said last year Starr approached him at an event in Galveston the two both happened to attend.
“His first question was, ‘Have you forgiven me yet?’ ” Loftin said with a chuckle. “I told him I bear no grudges. … I understood why he felt they had to do what they did. At the time, unlike today, Baylor felt very vulnerable. I can sympathize in that respect … (but) it certainly set us back a few weeks, and made me pretty upset.”
Then-a&m football coach Mike Sherman was thrilled in 2010 when A&M opted to pass on the SEC, and a year later was taken aback when the move was again in motion. It was one more reason A&M opted for a fresh start in football — that and a 6-6 regular season in 2011 capped by a last-second home loss to Texas.
“If we had made the move to the SEC with (Sherman), I think he would have made the best of it,” Loftin said of Sherman being adept at following marching orders. “But his departure was much more tied to the (Texas) game.”
Meantime, a decade ago I was all for A&M’S shift to the SEC based on two alluring words: road trips. The memorable treks through the South have lived up to their billing in the league that’s won 11 of the last 15 national titles in college football (including six by Alabama).
The Aggies have yet to win an SEC title in football, but their No. 5 finish in the Associated Press poll in 2012 under then-coach Kevin Sumlin was their highest since 1956 and their No. 4 finish last season under Jimbo Fisher was their highest since winning a national title in 1939.
In 2018-19 and before the pandemic, the SEC’S annual payout to its 14 members was $44.6 million. By comparison that same fiscal year the Big 12 was at $38.8 million each to its 10 members.
“By almost any measure you can come up with, except for a championship, we have been successful, the SEC has blessed us in so many ways,” said the 72year-old Loftin, who following a stint as Missouri’s chancellor is retired and active in College Station. “Even the Aggies who were adamantly opposed to this back in 2010 have come around. I can’t recall anybody within the last year in the A&M community telling me moving to the SEC was a bad thing to do.”