About this time last season the Texas A&M Aggies flirted with fleeing the Big 12 Conference for supposed greener pastures in the SEC. While the university ultimately chose to stay in it’s current conference for the 2010 season, the Aggies apparently have had a change of heart going forward.
A&M has forced an impromptu meeting of SEC officials this weekend and through early next week to decide if and how soon one of the Big 12’s most consistently potent hoops powers could join the Southeastern Conference.
After watching the Big 12 landscape change drastically over the past 2 seasons with Colorado and Nebraska fleeing to other conferences(Big Ten and Pac-12) and Texas set to launch the Longhorn Network, valued at $300 million over 20 years with ESPN, Texas A&M along with Missouri have both been rumored to be looking for another conference, primarily for more even competition on the gridiron.
While we all know football is the driving force for the move financially, the Aggies hoops program may benefit the most. A&M would be the newest addition to the newly expanded SEC, which recently voted to do away with the accustomed to East and West divisions because of a lack of potency from former West division teams like LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Auburn, and Ole Miss.
The Aggies are riding a 6 year streak of NCAA Tournament appearances and feature one of the top prospects for the 2012 NBA Draft in rising junior forward Khris Middleton. They have a new coaching staff led by Billy Kennedy, whom recently got a commitment from elite level PG J-Mychal Reese, a top 50 player in the 2012 Class, and one of 2013’s top guards Kendrick Nunn.
If A&M is approved for entry into the SEC, the board also would likely look to add upwards of 3 other schools in expansion. Rumored to be included in the expansion could be longtime ACC powers Florida State and Clemson, along with the aforementioned Missouri Tigers.
One high ranking SEC official downplayed the move saying that the move still has a 30-40% chance of being turned down because the conference would also need to immediately add the additional 14th team.
One thing is for sure that since the move would involve millions upon millions of dollars, the wheels of change move awfully slow. Just for reference, the move would cost Texas A&M a bundle in the short term as Colorado and Nebraska were forced to pay out between $7 and 9 million to the Big 12 for succeeding the conference last Summer.
UPDATE: The SEC met Sunday afternoon and decided to stick with their current 12 team format for the upcoming season but have left open the door to adding Texas A&M at a future time. Here’s a quote from SEC President Bernie Manchen:
“The SEC Presidents and Chancellors met today and reaffirmed our satisfaction with the present 12 institutional alignment. We recognize, however, that future conditions may make it advantageous to expand the number of institutions in the league. We discussed criteria and process associated with expansion. No action was taken with respect to any institution including Texas A&M.”
Source: CBS
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
