After months of rumors and speculation, Texas A&M University was officially introduced as the Southeastern Conference’s 13th member last Sunday effective July 2012. The Aggies will compete in all sports in the SEC for the 2012-13 school year.
Texas A&M’s departure from the Big 12 was drawn out to say the least as they had to go through legal issues before the move could be made official.
Baylor University threatened to sue for contractual interference. Baylor feared the move by the Aggies would spark a chain reaction leaving their future up in the air, but when Oklahoma and the Pac-12 decided to not make a move, Baylor’s legal threat went away since they felt the rest of the conference would remain intact.
The addition to the conference marks the first since 1991 when both Arkansas, who came from the Southwest Conference, and South Carolina, who came from the Atlantic Coast Conference, joined the rigorous SEC.
With the expansion to 13 teams, the conference will have to figure out scheduling conflicts unless the league decides to add a 14th team. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said earlier in the week that he does not anticipate adding another school before the 2012-13 school year.
But University of Tennessee Athletic Director Dave Hart said Thursday that he does not see the league staying at 13 teams for long.
"I think a lot of the conversation is just where we go from here, obviously, because at some point 13 will not be the number," Hart told The Associated Press. "There are a multitude of components to this that we have yet to really delve into. We will do that in relatively short order, but it's very complex in nature."
Experts predict the 14th team could be a wide variety of teams, but Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia Tech are among the names that have been mentioned the most.
The conference expansion will not only be a change for those fans in Texas, but it will be a drastic change for every school already in the SEC.
“That is about the last thing on my mind right now,” Ole Miss head football coach Houston Nutt said about the addition of Texas A&M as his team gets ready to head west to battle the Fresno State Bulldogs.
“I don't blame other schools for wanting to jump into our conference. It is an awesome conference and all the stadiums are full. However, that is the last thing on my mind. I am going to let the chancellors and Commissioner Mike Slive handle that. I trust them to pick the right schools to join us. That seems to be the nature of things right now with adding teams and turning into a league of 14-16 teams of athletic superpowers.”
Nutt also said the addition of Texas A&M will open up a door of opportunity to recruit the state of Texas, who is known for the number of athletes they put out each year.
“We have always loved (recruiting) Texas,” Nutt said. “We’ve been in Texas every year but not very much. We’ll probably be in there much more. In fact before this started happening, we already decided to go into Texas, so this just gives you a bigger reason to go in there. We’ve been in Texas, but we’ll probably put another coach or two in there.”
Nutt noted that the addition of Texas A&M will make Ole Miss more attractive to recruits, who he says are far ahead of the game of most high school athletes.
“(It’s an attractive sell because) you can be on TV,” he said. “They are such a well coached state. A lot of those high schools have just about the same number of coaches as college coaches. They’re fundamentally way ahead of the game. So, it will be good for us to do that.”
Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone told The Daily Mississippian that he doesn’t believe the SEC will pull anyone away from another conference.
“I don’t think the SEC is going to chase anybody,” Boone said. “Institutions that are interested in us will want to talk to us about being part of the SEC.”
While the future of the SEC is still uncertain, the SEC will remain at 13 teams for now, but in the crazy world of college football, no one can never really know for sure.
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