Interesting - good to know! You'd think they'd get more games on TV if their viewership is matching UT or A&M games. SEC didn't vote on anything today. Some people are reporting that means they are NOT inviting A&M. Others are reporting that it means A&M needs to request to join. But it seems to be the first potential blip here.
Every UH game is on tv this year. Of course, the ratings bump is very much helped out by playing local and marquee schools, but it shows the potential is there.
A&M is already in a major conference. Them leaving could cause some Texas schools that are in the Big 12 to wind up in worse conferences. This move is not a win for the state.
lol, aggy ... The Southeastern Conference is not extending an invitation to Texas A&M to become its 13th member, but isn't ruling out adding the Aggies in the future. University of Florida president Dr. Bernie Machen said the conference's presidents and chancellors met on Sunday and "reaffirmed our satisfaction with the present 12 institutional alignment." "We recognize, however, that future conditions may make it advantageous to expand the number of institutions in the league," Machen said. "We discussed criteria and process associated with expansion. No action was taken with respect to any institution including Texas A&M." http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6861385/sec-extend-invitation-texas-leaves-options-open
skhanjr All you who assume A&M got denied, think for a second. The SEC presidents don't drop everything and meet on a Sunday to do nothing. 50 seconds ago SEC's statement could be legal wrangling. A&M must "apply" first. Or need to identify 14th team first ... But apparently not a "done deal." 17 minutes ago No SEC vote today, A&M BOR still set to meet Monday to authorize Pres Loftin to negotiate on their behalf regarding conference affiliation 26 minutes ago SEC not ruling out Texas A&M completely but it's clear they haven't been invited. Talk of a move well ahead of what actually has to happen.
Nah I'd rather have UH, the rivalry between UT and A&M is non-existent maybe except for rabid aggy fans
Not done yet. It may just be some maneuvering to allow A&M to be the one approaching the SEC. We'll know a lot more tomorrow when the A&M meeting happens. The SEC statement was pretty vague - we'll see if that was intentional or just random noise.
To me, sounds like they haven't decided on the 14th team. They need more time to find the ideal fit, FSU or Clemson.
Watching ESPNews. Machen had more to his quote: "We discussed criteria and process associated with expansion. No action was taken with respect to any institution including Texas A&M."
For UH's sake, I hope this doesn't amount to just another public humiliation for TAMU. Although it would at least be pretty hilarious.
Joe Schad on ESPN says it's still a possibility in the future. Concerns from the President's perspective are who is the 14th team? Mentioned potential litegation and scheduling concerns. Not necessarily over but at least for today. He imagines there will be continued discussions at the A&M meeting, then the Tuesday meeting with the State. Says the State meeting could be one of the reasons there is pause, or no "public" invite as of today.
Seems like its gonna be putting a huge break on it, at least for now. Think of a few days ago, when the scenario seemed to be "sec invites tamu over the weekend, tamu reschedules a BOR meeting to monday, and tx legislature committee is on tuesday"..If tamu got the invite, they could have pretty much joined without politics getting involved. Now, without the invite, even if the BOR authorizes loftin to enter the SEC if they get invited, politics is gonna get involved and try to put a stop on them. I'm sure A&M will try again in the future, maybe even next year when theres a 14th team, but seems like nothings gonna happen this week at least. But crazy how things turn around so fast, 24-48 hrs ago seemed like A&M to SEC was gonna happen for sure, now, not so fast.
It's hard to tell what the SEC's true stance on this. It's possible that they could just be saying no invite just to cover their asses legally, and then let a&m "apply" on monday.
