Archive for the ‘Realignment’ Category

A Letter From the President

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

A letter sent out by the man himself, Dr. Bowen Loftin

To: Former Students of Texas A&M University

Howdy from your President!

This is an historic time in Aggieland. Yesterday, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) – the nation’s preeminent collegiate athletic conference – invited Texas A&M to become its 13th member, effective July 1, 2012. And we have accepted enthusiastically.

By charting our own course, we can ensure that Texas A&M will be part of the athletic conference that will provide us with national visibility, as well as greater financial opportunity and conference stability, starting next summer and for decades to come.

Like Texas A&M, eight of the 12 current SEC member institutions owe their origins to the Morrill Act of 1862, which revolutionized higher education through the creation of land-grant universities. And, like Texas A&M, SEC members have achieved national and international prominence. For example, two universities – Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida – are members, with Texas A&M, in the elite Association of American Universities, which has just 61 members in the United States and Canada.

Our counterparts in the SEC are much like Texas A&M in other fundamental ways as well: they celebrate their rich histories and perpetuate their unique traditions, they are passionate on the playing field and in the stands, and they are united in their commitment to instilling core values that will prepare future generations of leaders for our nation and world.

Finally, the SEC provides a national platform for its member institutions. As you know, Texas A&M has made great strides in becoming a national brand that is synonymous with excellence in all of its many forms.

We are ready for the national spotlight.

It’s time for Texas A&M.

And today, it’s time for the Aggie Family – our record 50,000 current students
and some 360,000 former students around the world – to celebrate.

I hope you will join me, Dr. Bernie Machen, chair of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and president of the University of Florida; SEC Commissioner Mike Slive; and others at 6 p.m. today at The Zone Club for our official event to launch this new era. This event is open to the public. If you cannot attend in person, I encourage you to watch the festivities online at Aggieathletics.com.

Sincerely,
R. Bowen Loftin ’71
President

Official Announcement

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

Texas A&M University to Join Southeastern Conference

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (September 25, 2011) – The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors, acting unanimously, announced today that Texas A&M University will join the Southeastern Conference effective July 1, 2012, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2012-13 academic year.

The addition of Texas A&M will increase the SEC membership to 13 institutions. It is the first expansion for the SEC since September of 1991 when the University of South Carolina joined the league. The University of Arkansas joined the SEC in August of 1991. With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, the SEC was the first conference to split into divisions and add a conference championship game in 1992.

“The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors are pleased to welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” said Dr. Bernie Machen, chair of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and president of the University of Florida. “The addition of Texas A&M University as the SEC’s 13th member gives our league a prestigious academic institution with a strong athletic tradition and a culture similar to our current institutions.”

“The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve,” said Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin. “We are excited to begin competition in the nation’s premier athletic conference. This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically, and I believe the Southeastern Conference gives the Aggies the best situation of any conference in the country.”

Texas A&M, located in College Station, will also be the third institution in the Southeastern Conference to hold membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, joining University of Florida and Vanderbilt University. Texas A&M has an enrollment of 50,000 students, ranking as the sixth-largest university in the country, with 360,000 former students worldwide.

Texas A&M also adds to the athletic excellence of the SEC. Last season, the Aggies won three NCAA team titles (men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, women’s basketball) and finished eighth in the prestigious Learfield Sports Director’s Cup all-sport rankings.

“On behalf of our presidents, chancellors, athletics directors, students and fans, I welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “Texas A&M is a nationally-prominent institution on and off the field and a great fit for the SEC tradition of excellence-athletically, academically and culturally.”

The Aggies sponsor 20 varsity sports. Men’s sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. Women’s sports include basketball, equestrian, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country and volleyball. Texas A&M participates in every sport sponsored by the SEC except gymnastics and the SEC sponsors every sport the Aggies participate in except equestrian.

“All Nine”

Posted on: September 22nd, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

Those are my favorite words from all the events that occurred today,”all nine.”

In case you haven’t heard, the big twelve announced this evening that Dan Beebe would be stepping down as Big 12-2-1 commissioner. Former Big Eight commissioner Chuck Neinas will be filling in on an interim basis.

The league also announced the remaining nine teams pledged their tier 1 and tier 2 rights to the conference for the next 6 years. Everyone on that ride is on for a while it appears. The league on the verge of completely dissolving within the last week apparently has persuaded the 9 remaining members that this is in the best of all involved and this move is the beginning of rebuilding the stability that everyone is seeking.

As an Aggie, I can’t help but sit back and smile. As everyone of these teams was fretting and looking for a place to stay only to find themselves back together with all the reasons and schools they were looking to get away from, A&M sat on the sideline watching and waiting with the most stabil new home just waiting to be moved into.

Like I said, “all nine” were my favorite words of the day. Every time there was an interview, or a release, or a statement made, that reference was used. “All nine” schools decided this, or “all nine” schools are going to do that. Texas A&M is essentially as we’ve known, no longer in the Big 12-2-1. It’s just a matter of time till “all nine” schools say goodbye with a look of jealousy as we settle into our sweet new home in the SEC.

For another look at what happened and what was said today-
David Boren: Presidents agree to deal

Inching Closer

Posted on: September 20th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

Tonight, the PAC 12 released the following statement–

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.– In light of the widespread speculation about potential scenarios for Conference re-alignment, the Pac-12 Presidents and Chancellors have affirmed their decision to remain a 12-team conference. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said, “after careful review we have determined that it is in the best interests of our member institutions, student-athletes and fans to remain a 12-team conference. While we have great respect for all of the institutions that have contacted us, and certain expansion proposals were financially attractive, we have a strong conference structure and culture of equality that we are committed to preserve. With new landmark TV agreements and plans to launch our innovative television networks, we are going to focus solely on these great assets, our strong heritage and the bright future in front of us.””

So what does this mean for the Aggies? Well it should clear the way for us to leave and for the Big 12-2-1 to send us on our way without a hassle. At this point it is in everyone’s best interest. The Big 12-2-1 will be staying together and it should now start to focus on who it is going to replace us with and if they should pick up more teams to go back to being a 12 team conference. With the team staying in tact and maybe even growing, Baylor should be OK to and even encouraged by conference mates to back off.

The SEC made the following tweet today, “The Southeastern Conference has not agreed, formally or informally, to accept any institution other than Texas A&M and there have not been conference discussions regarding changes in divisional alignments.” With this it just reiterates what we already knew that we were going. Now we can just expect the barriers to be pulled from both the Big 12-2-1 as well as the SEC sides.

Could September 21, 2011 be the day we remember being officially added to the SEC? We will soon know, and if tomorrow isn’t the day, it should be very very soon!

9-15-2011 Updates

Posted on: September 15th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

While it continues to be oh so excruciatingly quiet this week, I have some quick updates as to where some things stand:

First off, the Aggies are gone. There is about a .001% chance of them going back to the Big 12-2-1. We followed the exit path set forth by the league, the SEC voted us in and now we are just waiting on everything else to shake out so we can officially accept that beautiful invite.

Now everything else going on isn’t so clear. First up is OU. They are apparently the last link keeping everyone from going on their merry way, and we may soon find out what their intentions are. They currently have a board of regents meeting setup for Monday, there are some very intriguing points of order in the agenda for that meeting. Here is the agenda, and I direct your attention to items 28 and 29.
OU Regents Official Agenda
As you can see, we should get a clear picture what direction OU, OSU and consequently the Big 12-2-1 will be going after this meeting Monday.

Now onto our good friend Ken Starr. It appears he decided this week was the week he needed even more help and headed all the way to Washington. That’s right K* is in Washington DC to try and scare up help for his lowly Conference USA bound bears. The beginning of this politico wrap-up gives a brief statement about Ken and his pleas in our Capital.
POLITICO Influence: Breaking: Ken Starr returns to Hill…
Why can’t Ken just move past all of this and see that he is doing nothing but hurting his own reputation(if possible) and that of his school? Baylor has the best team they’ve had in a long long time and that’s what he and his school should be focusing on. Instead of worrying about everyone else, worry about what they are doing themselves on the field and in finding the best future home of the Baylor Bears.

Lastly today we get to see what kind of fun those longhors are up to in Austin. It looks like one of Mack’s main men wasn’t being such a good boy and it got “ol’ Freak Nasty” into some trouble.
Cleve Bryant was fired for harassment

It’s been so slow with info about our move and everyone else’s this week that it’s driven me to focus on work and stay off the internet reading everything possible. Hopefully as we get through another actual game and move into next week starting with OU’s meeting we’ll have some more definitive information about our future as well as everyone else’s and we’ll try to keep you as up do date as possible as that happens.

SEC – Not If But When

Posted on: September 12th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

These are comments made by Mike Slive, the commissioner of the SEC on Monday:

“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. 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.

“As I said over the past year or so, the SEC has had no particular interest in expansion. We were, and are, happy with 12 teams. If Texas A&M’s President, Dr. Bowen 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/Chancellors, we would very much like to have Texas A&M as a member of our conference.

“When Texas A&M joins our conference, we don’t have immediate plans for a 14th member. 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.”

From his words his seems to confirm everything we’ve been hearing for the last week that it’s just a matter of time before we ride ourselves of this Baylor problem and join the SEC where we belong.

Where We Stand

Posted on: September 10th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

So there wasn’t very much Texas A&M Aggies to the SEC action being released to the public or even leaked the last couple days. However, there was a large amount of action occurring behind the scenes and we here at AggiestotheSEC.com have the first hand look at what has been happening!

This story starts in the city of Waco, Texas…

Here we run into the man leading the charge against the Aggies, Ken Starr. We received the image below from someone inside the Baylor staff of the villain as he gives his staff a speech about how proud he was that they were being “Baylor Bold”.



He was also heard proudly telling staffers, “We are saving college football for everyone! And the Trillions we will make from holding Texas A&M hostage and manipulating OU will be well worth it when we can finally buy another tarp to cover our other endzone”.

“Though our first attempt at a campaign to stop this madness was shut down by TXDot for copyright infringement, we will come up with another genius plan to save Texas football, that’s right, we’ll RISE UP!”

Meanwhile south on 6 in College Station, TX…

Dr. Bowen Loftin was preparing to lead his people out of the shadow of the dying Big 12-2-1. He was frustrated with the run around and other schools going back on their words.

In preparation for the tough time ahead he grew his battle beard and donned his ceremonial robes worn when it is time to vanquish his enemies. This move is a “100 year decision” for Texas A&M and Dr. Loftin was not one to take it lightly. We are SEC bound and no “Baylor” is going to keep that from being so!

Now many people have seen a honey badger online and wished they had one as a pet(if you haven’t seen one, go here – Honey Badger on Youtube). Up until now though, no one has seen the amazing animal that is the Loftin Badger! There is one in existence and it is owned by Dr. Loftin. This beautiful animal was seen this week as Dr. Loftin sent him to Waco to warn Pharaoh Ken Starr that he should “Let My Aggies Go” because the Loftin Badger doesn’t give a %$&*! The ferocious animal can be seen below as he entered Baylor’s campus.

Now you are essentially caught up on where we stand so far. The Aggies have been accepted to and are ready to join the SEC as soon as Baylor realizes they are only delaying the inevitable. Now that Dr. Loftin is at work and the Loftin Badger has been unleashed, this thing could be wrapped up very early this next week.

Baylor Still Being Baylor

Posted on: September 8th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

Well if you’ve been following along today you know that a lot has changed since this morning while almost nothing has changed. We still have the votes to join the SEC and we are still leaving and Baylor is still in our way.

Why? That is all that keeps running through my head and was running rampant around the twitterverse today. What is the end game in all this for the school that deserves to be and should most likely end up in a non-Automatic qualifying conference. We are leaving and all you are doing is burning bridges for future games and making a reputation that will do nothing but hinder your entrance into your next conference home. I mean really, holding A&M and or OU hostage is really going to make for a beneficial and stable conference going forward?! Everyone has carried Baylor since they weaseled their way into the Big 12-2-1 when it was created 15 years ago, yet 15 years and 18 Big XII wins later, the desire to hang with the “big boys” still runs strong in your delusional little Baylor heads. I mean Iowa State has even had “successful” years in comparison, but they know who they are and you are still Baylor.

Now let’s look at this from a little bit different perspective. I can’t see going to a new conference as anything but a positive for Baylor. Just look at TCU as a great example of a what a program similar to Baylor’s could build with a smart move. They win a lot and get tons of national exposure because of it. They recruit very well, win on a regular basis and get mentioned every year as a team that has a chance to push through because they set themselves up to succeed. The money initially lost with the move to a smaller conference can even start to be made up with the increased merchandising and ticket sales that come from having a successful program. They could likely have more say in the conference decisions and control as they would come in as a larger program and almost definitely have instant success against a less daunting schedule.

Now maybe none of that could actually happen, because let’s face it, Baylor is Baylor. They could very possibly and most likely will figure out how to get to the bottom of any conference they end up in and try to ride the coattails of their new conference mates, such as East Carolina and UAB.

When it comes down to it, this whole thing is beginning to piss me off, as it is thousands of other Aggies and SEC fans out there. The sooner this ends, the better everyone will be. The conference was getting out of our way in the best interest of everyone and the only thing holding us back at this point is Baylor still being Baylor.

Baylor’s In The Way

Posted on: September 7th, 2011 by SECAG 2 Comments

Statement from Dr. Bernie Machen, Chair, Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors:

After receiving unanimous written assurance from the Big 12 on September 2 that the Southeastern Conference was free to accept Texas A&M to join as a new member, the presidents and chancellors of the SEC met last night with the intention of accepting the application of Texas A&M to be the newest member of the SEC. We were notified yesterday afternoon that at least one Big 12 institution had withdrawn its previous consent and was considering legal action. The SEC has stated that to consider an institution for membership, there must be no contractual hindrances to its departure. The SEC voted unanimously to accept Texas A&M University as a member upon receiving acceptable reconfirmation that the Big 12 and its members have reaffirmed the letter dated September 2, 2011.

It is really starting to feel like Baylor is that little cousin that ruins all the fun because they cry and whine to the point that no one is allowed to do anything with out taking them along. They are doing everything they can to stop Texas A&M from leaving and it’s getting to the point of pathetic. We are going to leave and the rest of the Big 12-2-1 would like it just to happen and be done with so everyone can make their own plans, but Baylor just won’t stand down. We’ll see what happens with the Big 12-2-1 meeting today to discuss plans moving forward, but for now the ONLY thing in the way is Baylor

Oh and here is the letter from the Big 12-2-1 to Mike Slive and the SEC assuring them we were clear of legal action moving forward – Clearance Letter – I guess they forgot to send Baylor their copy.

On the Eve of Secession

Posted on: September 7th, 2011 by SECAG No Comments

It is widely known that the SEC Presidents met today to vote on extending the Texas Aggies the long awaited SEC invite. What has come from this meeting has yet to be officially announced, but it is being talked about as anywhere from a 10-2 to a 12-0 yes vote. Either way it should be announced very soon that we are heading East. On that announcement front, we are hearing that parking space and event space have been reserved and setup for a big event tomorrow at Kyle, and we can only assume that our coveted announcement will be happening tomorrow.

The last month of rumor and speculation has seemed like an extremely long one and the official announcement can’t come fast enough. I for one am going to be fairly useless at work tomorrow following twitter and refreshing my browser before enjoying some well made bourbon in celebration.

This is all obviously coming at a great time for Aggie athletics with just about every program on the way up, or already residing at the top of their game. This was none the clearer than Sunday afternoon at Kyle Field. Our Aggies showed up and took care of business the way a top 10 team should against a very good SMU football team. The crowd and atmosphere were electric, not just during the game, but all day. Walking across campus it just felt different. The tailgating was at full force, the amount of people on campus was amazing and the weather turned awesome, albeit windy, just in time for 86,000 plus to enjoy a great opening game.

I’m so excited for the rest of the season and seeing what this team can do as I’m sure so many others are as well. An announcement tomorrow will just top off a great first week of football and set our sporting year up for an amazing goodbye to the Big 12-2-1.

I would do a writeup on the game and go in to detail about the good and bad of our game Sunday, but I’m a little late getting to it with the holiday weekend and half way attempting to get caught up on work this morning and if you haven’t found a better one online by now well, you should.

On another note, I’ve done some remodeling around here as I’m sure you noticed if you’ve been here before. One addition I’ve made is that I’ve added a Media Page for pictures I’ve taken or images/videos/gifs I make. I added some of the pictures I took from Sundays SMU game to get it started for now. I also hope to get a page up for the wallpapers I make as well as a roster and schedules pages, but those will all come in time.

So thanks for stopping by and hopefully the next time I get something posted it will be as a proud fan of the newest SEC team. SECede!