Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive showed commitment to making Texas A&M a conference member for the 2012-13 athletic year at a speaking engagement Monday night in Birmingham, Ala. The SEC posted a press release online regarding Slive’s comments on the acceptance of A&M’s application to join the league.
“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,” Slive said. 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.”
Jason Cook, vice president for communications at A&M, said the comments are reassuring in A&M’s conference alignment process.
“Commisioner Slive made a significant statement in regards to Texas A&M’s future in the SEC,” Cook said.
Slive reminded his audience that the SEC was content with a 12-team conference, but considered expanding to 13 after a call from University President R. Bowen Loftin in late July. Slive said
A&M’s academic and athletic stature fueled the unanimous vote last week to extend an invitation. He also said the league has no “immediate plans for a 14th member.”
Baylor President Kenneth Starr is leading the fight against the implosion of the Big 12 Conference. Monday he wrote an opinion column for The Houston Chronicle regarding conference realignment and football in the state of Texas. Starr pleaded for officials to consider the effects of the conference’s disintegration on the economy and prestige of football in the state of Texas.
“The changes that are being rumored in the landscape of collegiate athletics are breathtaking and will forever alter the proud history of college football in Texas,” Starr wrote. “Such decisions should not be made in haste, and they should not be based on unsubstantiated representations of the benefits of such moves.”