Missouri will join the SEC and plans to be the conference’s 14th member in the 2012-13 academic year , according to a Sunday morning announcement. “I am pleased to officially welcome the University of Missouri to the SEC family on behalf of our presidents, chancellors, athletics directors, students and fans,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said in the news release. “Missouri is an outstanding academic institution with a strong athletic program. We look forward to having the Tigers compete in our league starting in 2012.” But could hurdles to making that happen still lie ahead? West Virginia and the Big 12 announced their plans for the Mountaineers to join the league in 2012, but the school and the Big East are currently embroiled in dueling suits over the league’s 27-month notice required in Big East bylaws. From our news story: “A source recently told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz that Missouri could have trouble getting out of the Big 12 because the league isn’t sure if it can get the Mountaineers in from the Big East next season.” The Big 12 is required to have 10 members to fulfill its television contract. Missouri and the SEC plan to have a public celebration and news conference on Sunday afternoon in Columbia. “The Southeastern Conference is a highly successful, stable, premier athletic conference that offers exciting opportunities for the University of Missouri,” school chancellor Brady J. Deaton said in the SEC statement. “In joining the SEC, MU partners with universities distinguished for their academic programs and their emphasis on student success.” Missouri’s entrance also gives the SEC a fourth Association of American Universities member, joining Texas A&M, Florida and Vanderbilt.
Filed under Football, News by on Nov 6th, 2011. Comment. 
TCU made it official Monday night, leaving the Big East without ever playing a game to accept an invitation to join the Big 12 . The news was expected after news broke last week that the Big 12 had extended an invitation to the Horned Frogs. Their departure leaves the Big East with six football playing schools, though the conference said in multiple statements that it would move quickly to fill their ranks. “Although never having competed as a member of the Big East conference, we are disappointed with the news that TCU is joining the Big 12,” commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement. “As noted earlier today, our presidents met via teleconference this morning to focus on the future and have authorized us to engage in formal expansion discussions with additional institutions. We anticipate taking action in the near future.” TCU decided to leave the Mountain West for the Big East last November, and was set to begin play in the league in 2012. But after Pitt and Syracuse left for the ACC, and Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC, an opportunity opened up for the Horned Frogs to play much closer to home in what appears to be a more stable conference. TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said this about departing the Big East: “While this is indeed an incredible day for the Horned Frog Nation, we need to recognize the Mountain West and Big East. The Mountain West has been a great home to TCU, enabling our athletics program to grow and be in position to receive and accept an invitation to join the Big 12. We are also appreciative of the Big East for providing an opportunity for TCU. We have great respect for the leadership of the Big East and all its members. “The Big 12 is a perfect fit for TCU. With our historical ties to Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech, as well as the close proximity to the other league members, we couldn’t be more excited to have the Big 12 as our new home.” The Big East must now look for new members, and raised the possibility Monday of expanding to 12 teams. One that recently came up as a potential football-only member was Boise State. The Boston Globe reported the Broncos were one team that was under consideration, but that appears to be a long-shot. Boise State president Bob Kustra released a statement Monday night that read, “While we are certainly flattered to be mentioned in connection with other conferences, and we hold those leagues in high regard, our current focus is on continuing to build the outstanding athletic programs that have helped make Boise State a popular and compelling national brand. “The landscape of college athletics is exceptionally fluid, and we are continuing to monitor the situation. We are confident that Boise State will be well positioned for future success, and we will evaluate our status with the best interests of the entire university in mind. Boise State’s athletic achievements, academic and research successes, popularity, and vision for future growth make the university an extremely valuable conference partner.” Navy, Air Force and Army have been mentioned as football-only members, while UCF, Temple and East Carolina also have been mentioned.
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TCU leaves for Big 12 as expected
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment.
Everyone expects the SEC to eventually expand to 14 schools, but that time doesn’t appear to be now. SEC presidents and chancellors met Monday for their fall meeting, but no expansion action was taken and we don’t know when it will. “The Presidents and Chancellors of the Southeastern Conference met on Monday for its regularly-scheduled fall meeting,” the league said in a statement. “While they discussed a wide range of issues dealing with the changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics, no actions were taken with regards to expansion.” This comes after even more speculation arose after Missouri curators gave chancellor Brady Deaton the authority to explore a move to another conference rather than immediately commit to the Big 12. Word quickly spread that Missouri had real interest in joining the SEC , but only after the Big Ten showed no interest in the school. Last week, The Birmingham News reported that a majority of SEC presidents and chancellors would support Missouri’s application , but that majority falls short of the nine votes required to add a new member. While the SEC says it isn’t taking steps toward growing at the moment, don’t expect that sort of talk to quell any of the expansion chatter. Even after the SEC officially announced Texas A&M as its 13th member, all the talk surrounded what school was going to be the 14th team and if there was a possibility of three more joining. It seems as if Texas A&M is a mere afterthought at this point. Missouri’s name will continue to come up, as the St. Louis and Kansas City markets figure to be attractive to the SEC and so does the school’s AAU membership. Remember, this isn’t just about football. There are a lot of other factors that go into expansion other than football games. Don’t be surprised if West Virginia continues to come up again. Maybe Louisville will get thrown into the mix. And don’t count the Virginia Tech and Florida State talk either. It should be fun with all the speculation and rumors sure to come.
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The SEC puts a hault on expansion
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment.
In the past two months, two members of the Big 12 have given their presidents the same power Deatonâs been given. Â Texas A&M ultimately left for the SEC, with the move becoming officially official exactly seven weeks after their Board of Regents… Source: NBC Sports
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CFT: Mizzou curators vote to consider Big 12 move
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 5th, 2011. Comment.
Texas A&M has officially been accepted as the 13th member of the SEC . Sunday, the SEC announced that Texas A&M will join the conference effective July 1, 2012, and will begin competition in all sports for the 2012-13 academic year. “On behalf of our presidents, chancellors, athletics directors, students and fans, I welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said in a release. “Texas A&M is a nationally-prominent institution on and off the field and a great fit for the SEC tradition of excellence—athletically, academically and culturally.” Earlier this month, the SEC presidents and chancellors voted and unanimously accepted Texas A&M’s application to become the 13th member of the league, but legal action from Baylor delayed the process. With the the Big 12 appearing to stabilize, it doesn’t appear as if Baylor will need to take legal action against Texas A&M and the SEC anymore. If any school does decide to take legal action, it will be dealt with at that time. Sources told ESPN’s Joe Schad that the SEC’s announcement is “unconditional.” Here is what Dr. Bernie Machen, chair of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and president of the University of Florida said in a release about Texas A&M officially joining the conference: “The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors are pleased to welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family. The addition of Texas A&M University as the SEC’s 13th member gives our league a prestigious academic institution with a strong athletic tradition and a culture similar to our current institutions.” Added Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin: “The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve. We are excited to begin competition in the nation’s premier athletic conference. This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically, and I believe the Southeastern Conference gives the Aggies the best situation of any conference in the country.” Here are some fun facts about your new SEC brother. Now, play nice guys: Texas A&M is located in College Station, Texas, which as of 2010 had an estimated population of 94,642. Texas A&M will be the third institution in the SEC to hold membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities , joining Florida and Vanderbilt. Texas A&M also has an enrollment of 50,000 students, which ranks as the sixth-largest university in the country, and has 360,000 former students worldwide. Last season, Texas A&M won three NCAA team titles (men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and women’s basketball) and finished eighth in the distinguished Learfield Sports Director’s Cup all-sport rankings with 1090.50 points. Florida was the only SEC school to finish above Texas A&M, ranking fourth with 1212.25 points. Texas A&M sponsors 20 varsity sports. Men’s sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. Women’s sports include basketball, equestrian, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country and volleyball. Texas A&M participates in every sport sponsored by the SEC except gymnastics and the SEC sponsors every sport the Aggies participate in except equestrian.
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Texas A&M officially accepted into the SEC
Filed under Baseball, Basketball, Football by on Sep 25th, 2011. Comment.
Texas A&M has officially been accepted as the 13th member of the Southeastern Conference . Months of legal wrangling and rumors led into today’s official announcement, but sources told ESPN’s Joe Schad that the Aggies’ acceptance is “unconditional.” “The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors are pleased to welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” said Dr. Bernie Machen, chair of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and president of the University of Florida. “The addition of Texas A&M University as the SEC’s 13th member gives our league a prestigious academic institution with a strong athletic tradition and a culture similar to our current institutions.” A likely earlier announcement was postponed after Baylor threatened legal action, but the Big 12 is nearing stabilization, and any litigation would be dealt with as necessary. Texas A&M is the third Big 12 team to leave the league since June 2010, when Nebraska left for the Big Ten and Colorado left to form the Pac-12.
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Texas A&M-SEC marriage is official
Filed under Football by on Sep 25th, 2011. Comment.
Last month as Texas A&M was on the verge of bolting from the Big 12, I asked Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott given his previous prediction of an eventual world with super conferences how he thought that might affect college basketball. Scott declined comment . But Colorado coach Tad Boyle, whose program had left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 and stood to benefit greatly from the new arrangement, had misgivings at the time about hypothetical super conferences and how they would affect college basketball. “What makes our sport so great is not just the BCS-type schools,” Boyle said then. “It’s the 300-plus D-I programs, and everyone feels they’ve got a shot at making the NCAA tournament. That’s what makes our sport unique, what makes March Madness appealing. If you just went with a super power conference structure, I just don’t think it’s good for our sport.” Boyle, who not long ago coached at Northern Colorado out of the Big Sky, touched on how parity is one of college basketball’s signature traits. It’s the time-honored tradition that on any given night, five students in sneakers can beat another group of kids no matter the disadvantages in rankings, resources and pedigree. The formation of super conferences could strike a blow if you believe in such things, with television contracts and pooled revenues making the gaps between the power conferences and the mid-majors even wider. So when the Pac-12 last night announced that it had decided not to expand for the time being, it was a victory for status-quo seekers. Expansion might still be inevitable in some parts of the country, but for one night, the headline was stability. It was something echoed in a statement from UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who happens to be a former NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee chair. “After weighing all of the factors regarding potential expansion, our presidents and chancellors have decided to maintain the status quo and ensure that our conference remains a 12-school league. At UCLA, we feel this is the correct decision for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which are the stability of a 12-team conference format, the overall welfare of our student-athletes and the ability to maintain the traditional rivalries that have existed from our conference’s inception.”
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Hoops super conferences and the Pac-12
Filed under Basketball by on Sep 21st, 2011. Comment.
1. So this is the state of intercollegiate athletics in the Big 12: the regents and the presidents at Texas and Oklahoma are telling each other how great it will be to join the Pac-12 while Longhorns coach Mack Brown is describing the price that move will extract from the players and their families. Remember Brown’s words when the move happens, and Oklahoma president David Boren and Texas president Bill Powers describe how their student-athletes will benefit from a league that spans three time zones. 2. After reading the allegations that the NCAA delivered Monday to South Carolina, it’s difficult to decide what’s more problematic: a) the athletic department allowed 12 student-athletes to receive some $47,000 in extra benefits; or b) the benefits, in the form of housing the players in a hotel at a rate of $14.59 per night, didn’t set off an NCAA alarm in any athletic official’s head. That rate may work for a cheap apartment — it works out to about $450 per month — but the Whitney Hotel (AAA rate: $99) is no apartment. 3. Once it became clear that the weather delay at the Oklahoma State-Tulsa game would last hours instead of minutes, how do you keep your 160 athletes, coaches, managers and others fueled? One of coach Mike Gundy’s state trooper escorts took assistant strength coach Tyler Buckminster to a local grocery, where they picked up 8-10 loaves of bread, and a shopping cart full of peanut butter and several flavors of jelly. “I guess if you are hungry enough, you’ll eat whatever is available,” Gundy said Monday.
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3-point stance: Expansion will take its toll
Filed under Football by on Sep 20th, 2011. Comment.
SEC commissioner Mike Slive finally spoke about expansion and bringing Texas A&M into the league . Slive said he hopes that Texas A&M joins the SEC by next season, but the most interesting thing to come from what Slive said was that the SEC has already started looking at scheduling for the 2012-13 season involving 13 conference teams. Slive is indicating that he is in no rush to add a 14th team once Texas A&M is free of legal issues regarding its departure from the Big 12 and can finally join the SEC. Thirteen teams will feel odd in the league, but one season wouldn’t be too bad. But you have to think that the SEC will even things out sooner rather than later. I doubt the SEC goes more than one season with just 13 teams. The realistic goal for the league has to be 14, or even 16, teams. When talking to SEC coaches last week, most feel that 16-team conferences will become the norm in college football in the very near future. When that will happen? We aren’t sure, but Texas officials met with officials from Oklahoma over the weekend , with Oklahoma reportedly considering a move to the Pac-12. The ball is definitely continuing to roll, it’s just a very sluggish roll at this point. But Slive used the word “when” when referring to Texas A&M, so he feels confident that the Aggies will eventually join. Slive also said that he didn’t really consider expansion until Texas A&M president Dr. Bowen Loftin called him back in July to discuss Texas A&M. “As I said over the past year or so, the SEC has had no particular interest in expansion,” Slive said in a release. “We were, and are, happy with 12 teams. If Texas A&M’s President, Dr. Bowen Loftin had not called me in late July, we had no plans to explore adding an institution. “However, when President Loftin called we became interested. Texas A&M is an outstanding academic institution with an exceptional athletic program, passionate fans and wonderful traditions. While the SEC wasn’t thinking about expansion, it was impossible not to be interested in Texas A&M. As you can see from the unanimous vote of our twelve Presidents/Chancellors, we would very much like to have Texas A&M as a member of our conference.”
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Mike Slive addresses expansion
Filed under Football by on Sep 13th, 2011. Comment.
First-year Florida coach Will Muschamp thinks it’s inevitable that 16-team conferences are coming. The SEC has voted to add Texas A&M as long as there are no legal snags, and Muschamp’s personal opinion is that the expansion won’t stop at 13 or even 14 teams. “I think we’re headed toward 16-team leagues,” said Muschamp, who was at Texas before coming to Florida. “I think there will be four of them at some point, personally.” Muschamp added that he thinks it’s headed that way because of the “haves and have-nots” in college football right now. Tennessee coach Derek Dooley is also braced for a major shift in the college football landscape. “It’s changing and we’ll see where it takes us,” Dooley said. “It’s up to the presidents and [SEC] commissioner to figure this thing out, and I hope it doesn’t disrupt the great thing we have going right now. That’s what we all hope.”
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Muschamp envisions 16-team leagues
Filed under Football by on Sep 7th, 2011. Comment.
