There is an old adage that secrets aren’t secrets; they’re just not any of your business.
Unfortunately for Texas A&M, their biggest and most hated rival that they had been avoiding since discontinuing the Lone Star Showdown, the Texas Longhorns, have possibly been having secret meetings with Greg Sankey and the rest of the conference with the intentions of joining the SEC. As reported by ESPN, Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork expressed the school was not involved in any conversations on the matter, hinting at the fact they were unaware.
It’s a deal that is all but done. According to The Athletic, Texas and Oklahoma will send letters to the Big 12 on Monday. Unfortunately for the Big 12, the two powerhouse programs will have to tell them “it’s not you, its me.” Texas and Oklahoma do not intend to renew their grant-of-rights agreements, which are set to expire in 2025, and their departure from the Big 12 is imminent.
This is a move that will not only obliterate what was left of the Big 12, but according to ESPN, will break the gentleman’s agreement that Texas A&M thought it had with other SEC schools, which would allow a veto to any new team entering the SEC.
What does this reveal? It is a revelation that the rest of the SEC views Texas A&M as the little kid who is not yet mature enough to sit at the adult table during Thanksgiving dinner, and that they do not care what they have to say. It has been reported that these meetings have been happening for the past six months, and Texas A&M found out … checks watch … when Jimbo Fisher took the podium at SEC media days two days ago like the rest of the world.
There will be a vote held in which Texas A&M will have one last effort to prevent Texas and Oklahoma from entering the conference, but sadly for them, they need three-fourths of the conference to agree.
This could mean the vote will likely be 13-1, and the Aggies will be forced to face the fact the SEC couldn’t care less about what it has to say. The biggest bragging right the Aggies had over Texas and Oklahoma is now gone, and they will have to face the two frequently on the field again.
Denial is the first stage of grief, and is probably where the Aggies find themselves, but Kansas and Iowa State have reportedly both been looking for a new home and are in contact with the Big Ten.
Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork wasn’t too fond of the news when speaking to SEC Network on SEC media day this week:
“There’s a reason why we left the Big 12 back in 2011 and started in (the SEC) July 1, 2012. … We wanted to have a standalone identity in the state of Texas and all the turmoil that was happening in college athletics at the time,” Bjork told Paul Finebaum. “The SEC has been a perfect fit for us. And we believe that we want to maintain that same identity.”
Bjork added: “We love being the only program in the state of Texas (in the SEC), and we’re going to maintain that position. But we’re also going to make sure that we are a leader in college athletics, and we’ll see what the future holds.”
Life comes at you fast.
Texas A&M likely just lost both of these coveted desires in the span of three days, and will be one of two Texas teams in the SEC. The tradition is back, and we are learning more on the matter every day, just like the Aggies seem to be.