A&M to SEC Momentum Builds

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is not official until it's official. Still, as seen in this screenshot from a site that covers A&M sports, the momentum certainly is building.

Birmingham News columnist Jon Solomon writes that the move "feels inevitable." Here are what I feel are key excerpts from Solomon's piece:

Texas A&M would be very attractive to the SEC on several fronts. Culturally, the school fits. The SEC would get into the Dallas and Houston television markets, giving the conference a lot of leverage to renegotiate with its media deal with ESPN. Just as importantly, add a school in Texas and the SEC would have a foothold to recruit in the massive football-crazy state.

Texas A&M has clearly grown weary of Texas and the Longhorn Network, which hasn't even premiered yet. Texas rules the Big 12. That's why the conference won't survive long-term. There's too much in-fighting for this to last.

The A&M story is appearing increasingly in national sports outlets. And if Lubbock, Texas, the home of Texas Tech University and the place where I live, is representative of other Big 12 towns, Aggie talk is ubiquitous in select local markets. Today's two-hour radio show Tech Talk was devoted entirely to the possible A&M move and its implications for Texas Tech and more of the same is planned for the coming days. I heard someone use the term "secede" for what A&M would be doing, which may have been a play on words (as in SEC-ede).

It is being reported that Texas A&M's Board of Regents will meet on August 22 to deliberate on the matter.

An Aggie exit would leave the Big 12 with nine teams (given the previous departures of Nebraska to the Big 10 and Colorado to the Pac 10, now Pac 12). My own guess, for whatever it's worth, is that if A&M were to leave the Big 12, the University of Texas would become an independent in football (a la BYU) and the Big 12 would be history. The Longhorns would presumably need to "hook" up with some other league for sports other than football.