Texas Aggie Independence Day!
BREAKING: Texas A&M notifies Big 12
COLLEGE STATION - The other shoe just dropped.
Mere moments ago, Texas A&M sent a statement to Dan Beebe confirming that the Aggies will explore their options as they pertain to conference affiliation. "If" the Aggies do withdraw, they have officially expressed their desire to do so in such a manner that complies with Big 12 bylaws. In other words, A&M is asking the Big 12 Conference to outline the exit process that the Ags are to follow and the penalty fees that A&M will incur.
For those of you who are confused, this is legal speak for, “It’s been real, it’s been fun, but we’re following Nebraska’s lead.” In fact, what the Aggies did today was essentially the same thing that the Huskers did last summer. The only real difference was that NU had already applied for acceptance into the Big Ten and stated as much in their letter. As all of you know, A&M has yet to officially seek SEC membership so the timeline isn’t quite the same for the Aggies as it was for the Huskers.
The Aggies' next step will be to apply for acceptance into the Southeastern Conference. From there, A&M will wait until they hear back from the league and SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
I think it goes without saying that the Ags feel "fairly certain" about their chances of becoming the 13th member of the nation's premier athletics conference.
One point to keep in mind over the next few days: The SEC decision-makers have gone out of their way to make sure that the entire nation (and the national media) know that A&M courted them and not the other way around. While most of us — including the Aggie brass — would love nothing more than for A&M to become an "official" SEC member sometime tomorrow, there is a realistic chance that the league will wait until sometime next week to extend the "formal" invite to Texas A&M University.
For those of you wondering about penalty fees, the A&M side feels very strongly that the precedent was set a year ago with Nebraska and Colorado, as the Cornhuskers settled for a little more than $9 million.
Mere moments ago, Texas A&M sent a statement to Dan Beebe confirming that the Aggies will explore their options as they pertain to conference affiliation. "If" the Aggies do withdraw, they have officially expressed their desire to do so in such a manner that complies with Big 12 bylaws. In other words, A&M is asking the Big 12 Conference to outline the exit process that the Ags are to follow and the penalty fees that A&M will incur.
For those of you who are confused, this is legal speak for, “It’s been real, it’s been fun, but we’re following Nebraska’s lead.” In fact, what the Aggies did today was essentially the same thing that the Huskers did last summer. The only real difference was that NU had already applied for acceptance into the Big Ten and stated as much in their letter. As all of you know, A&M has yet to officially seek SEC membership so the timeline isn’t quite the same for the Aggies as it was for the Huskers.
The Aggies' next step will be to apply for acceptance into the Southeastern Conference. From there, A&M will wait until they hear back from the league and SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
I think it goes without saying that the Ags feel "fairly certain" about their chances of becoming the 13th member of the nation's premier athletics conference.
One point to keep in mind over the next few days: The SEC decision-makers have gone out of their way to make sure that the entire nation (and the national media) know that A&M courted them and not the other way around. While most of us — including the Aggie brass — would love nothing more than for A&M to become an "official" SEC member sometime tomorrow, there is a realistic chance that the league will wait until sometime next week to extend the "formal" invite to Texas A&M University.
For those of you wondering about penalty fees, the A&M side feels very strongly that the precedent was set a year ago with Nebraska and Colorado, as the Cornhuskers settled for a little more than $9 million.
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