It appear Texas A&M is headed to SEC (Houston: schools, college)

[Marat]

Originally Posted by kdogg817

You must not have been keeping up. Texas has its own network on ESPN and is going independent like Norte Dame. No other conference wants Texas because they stand to profit substantially more than the other institutions because of Longhorn Network. OU may go west or to the big ten. The Houston market virtually will belong to the SEC when this becomes official. I hope UT and its network fail. They ruined the SWC and now they have ruined the big 12 due to greed.

We will revisit this post after it all finalizes. Texas will end up in the Big 10, Pac whatever, or in a new conference. OU and Texas will stay together. Unlike A&M, OU is a successful program with its own identity. OU and UT together are powerful.

Your post is like 1 million others on the sports boards. I guess some list of talking points for Aggies was posted somewhere since they are all identical.

Arkansas left the SWC first. If you want to blame someone, they did first damage to SWC.

Texas was not the one to break apart the Big 12 either. Nebraska couldn't handle being a step child in the conference next to the success of OU and UT. Colorado sucks in all sports and has for awhile now. Now A&M is leaving. Their departure seems almost like more of an effort to spite UT than anything else. They couldn't hang in the Big 12. Not sure why they think they will instantly turn into a national power in the SEC. They were only the 6th most successful program in the Big 12, barely over a .500 record.

Records North and South Combined Win Loss
Texas 90 30
Oklahoma 86 34
Nebraska 81 39
Kansas State 70 50
Texas Tech 69 51
Texas A&M 61 59
Colorado 60 60
Missouri 58 62
Okl. State 55 65
Kansas 36 84
Iowa State 34 86
Baylor 18 102

A&M is puzzling to me. They are all for equal money in the SEC or when compared to UT but were still willing to accept the extra pay to remain in the Big 12 during the conference realignment efforts in the summer of 2010. Unequal revenue sharing didn't bother them then. They also committed themselves to the Big 12 with steep exit fees to show their long term commitment to the conference. Now they are bailing. Aggie honor code for you.

[UTHORNS96]

Originally Posted by kdogg817

You must not have been keeping up. Texas has its own network on ESPN and is going independent like Norte Dame. No other conference wants Texas because they stand to profit substantially more than the other institutions because of Longhorn Network. OU may go west or to the big ten. The Houston market virtually will belong to the SEC when this becomes official. I hope UT and its network fail. They ruined the SWC and now they have ruined the big 12 due to greed.

Do you actually know the history of the SWC? Or do you just listen to what a few sportswriters and your aggy friends say?

The SWC was dead as soon as Arkansas left. SMU getting the death penalty didn't help either. The TV markets weren't very diverse at all. UT was horrible when the SWC broke up and didn't garner near the interest and revenue that they do now. People seem to forget that. UT had absolutely NO leverage at that point in time.

You're also overestimating how much of the Houston market A&M will bring. You can count on one hand the number of times their games have been televised in the past three years and they can't even sell out their own stadium.

A&M ain't goin nowhere. The legislature won't allow it. This whole thing is just a cry for attention and basically an attempt to get out from under big brother's shadow. Even OU fans are agreeing with UT on this subject.

[UTHORNS96]

Originally Posted by Marat

We will revisit this post after it all finalizes. Texas will end up in the Big 10, Pac whatever, or in a new conference. OU and Texas will stay together. Unlike A&M, OU is a successful program with its own identity. OU and UT together are powerful.

Your post is like 1 million others on the sports boards. I guess some list of talking points for Aggies was posted somewhere since they are all identical.

Arkansas left the SWC first. If you want to blame someone, they did first damage to SWC.

Texas was not the one to break apart the Big 12 either. Nebraska couldn't handle being a step child in the conference next to the success of OU and UT. Colorado sucks in all sports and has for awhile now. Now A&M is leaving. Their departure seems almost like more of an effort to spite UT than anything else. They couldn't hang in the Big 12. Not sure why they think they will instantly turn into a national power in the SEC. They were only the 6th most successful program in the Big 12, barely over a .500 record.

Records North and South Combined Win Loss
Texas 90 30
Oklahoma 86 34
Nebraska 81 39
Kansas State 70 50
Texas Tech 69 51
Texas A&M 61 59
Colorado 60 60
Missouri 58 62
Okl. State 55 65
Kansas 36 84
Iowa State 34 86
Baylor 18 102

A&M is puzzling to me. They are all for equal money in the SEC or when compared to UT but were still willing to accept the extra pay to remain in the Big 12 during the conference realignment efforts in the summer of 2010. Unequal revenue sharing didn't bother them then. They also committed themselves to the Big 12 with steep exit fees to show their long term commitment to the conference. Now they are bailing. Aggie honor code for you.

The only arguments aggy and nebraska fans have is to whine about mean ole Texas. But they have no sort of evidence to back up their claims of "Texas Greed" and how Texas ruined the SWC. Just sour grapes is all it is. OU fans don't seem to be complaining.

[hoffdano]

The legislature really can't stop it. They can posture and threaten to, but if A&M's board of regents, legally empowered to make this decision, want to move it will happen.

UT is a money making machine. But the results on the field don't come close to matching their investment. UT behaves in its own best interests, not per se unreasonable, but they should realize that enough is enough for the other schools. Does UT need more athletic money than they have already, the most in the nation? As Jeff Ward (radio talk show) says - UT exemplifies "professional college sports."

Yes the move is mostly about football $$, but the SEC is a better athetic conference in every sport. If you haven't noticed, A&M is doing very well, almost across the board.

A&M hasn't sold out the full season at Kyle because of football mediocrity. But every home game was over sold the last half of the season. DKR may have technically been sold out every game, but many games are not filled. The game against A&M certainly wasn't (I was there), and it began emptying early.

I think A&M will move. It will be good to separate itself from UT. It's athletic identity has been linked to UT for too long and a historical rivalry is not enough of a reason to stay.

[Bo]

ESPN expert at the link below claims the move is a done deal and the Aggies are just the first of 4 teams making the move to the SEC.

https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/ESPN_BowlBound/status/102381916468150273 (broken link)

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by UTHORNS96

The only arguments aggy and nebraska fans have is to whine about mean ole Texas. But they have no sort of evidence to back up their claims of "Texas Greed" and how Texas ruined the SWC. Just sour grapes is all it is. OU fans don't seem to be complaining.

Your use of the word "aggy" is a good indicator of your objectivity regarding UT and other teams. Look at the FACTS. UT is a financial powerhouse, led by an athletic director famously quoted as saying "we don't keep up with the Jones, we are the Jones." UT collects more money and spends more money but do the results match? In spite a football profit of over $65M, UT only fields 7 mens sports teams and 9 womens teams. In almost every sport, they have coaches paid in the top 5 of their field. Only Eddie Reese (mens swimming), one of the best in the world, regularly sniffs national championships.

It amazes me that UT needs their own TV network, to add $15M a year to their revenues. What for?

[spursfan]

I don't really think this will improve our football chances, that's for sure. Not a big fan of this decision (if it happens).

[TT Dave]

Originally Posted by spursfan

I don't really think this will improve our football chances, that's for sure. Not a big fan of this decision (if it happens).

Yeah, if A&M thinks they will do well in the SEC they'd better get a reality check real fast. Those SEC teams will pound them into the ground like they've never been pounded...lol. I think A&M might actually go to the SEC this time around. They are furious about UT's Longhorn Network deal and frankly, so are many of the rest of us who are fans of other teams in the Big 12-2.

[UTHORNS96]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Your use of the word "aggy" is a good indicator of your objectivity regarding UT and other teams. Look at the FACTS. UT is a financial powerhouse, led by an athletic director famously quoted as saying "we don't keep up with the Jones, we are the Jones." UT collects more money and spends more money but do the results match? In spite a football profit of over $65M, UT only fields 7 mens sports teams and 9 womens teams. In almost every sport, they have coaches paid in the top 5 of their field. Only Eddie Reese (mens swimming), one of the best in the world, regularly sniffs national championships.

It amazes me that UT needs their own TV network, to add $15M a year to their revenues. What for?

And I'm sure "t.u." is much more objective?

UT being a financial powerhouse is very recent. They didn't have near the money or the influence when the SWC fell, so blaming UT for the SWC breaking up is revisionist history.

And keep in mind, when the Big 12 formed, ALL schools voted for the same rules. Whoever generates the most money keeps the lion's share.

Nebraska and A&M weren't complaining in 1995, when they were both regularly top 10 teams and Texas and OU were in probably the biggest ruts in program history for each school. What it all comes down to is Texas and OU started getting it done on the field and started generating money, now after a decade of being overshadowed a&m and nebraska wanted to cry foul and take their ball and go home.

[spursfan]

Originally Posted by TT Dave

Yeah, if A&M thinks they will do well in the SEC they'd better get a reality check real fast. Those SEC teams will pound them into the ground like they've never been pounded...lol. I think A&M might actually go to the SEC this time around. They are furious about UT's Longhorn Network deal and frankly, so are many of the rest of us who are fans of other teams in the Big 12-2.

It just seems shortsighted to me when A&M's sports that aren't football are on the rise and have been doing quite well. It's more enjoyable to have rivalries with teams from your own state and not southern schools I don't really care about. Maybe playing second fiddle to UT finally got to be too much to bear for the school's leaders.