We interrupt the Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control Watch — STOCKS CRASHING! ECONOMY CRATERING! DEBT SOARING! OBAMA FLAILING! ENGLAND BURNING! BACHMANN’S EYES BULGING! — to bring you something else to #PANIC about… in the world of college sports! With bonus Rick Perry secessionist action! (No, not that kind of secession.)
The Texas A&M Aggies, a.k.a. the Brett Favre of the 10-team Big Twelve, are at it again. Rumors about an A&M move to the SEC — which would probably result, finally, in the disintegration of the Big XII, causing massive ripple effects across college sports, up to and including the formation of four 16-team superconferences, the end of Notre Dame’s independence, the destruction of the NCAA as we know it, and/or the Rapture — have resurfaced as a hot topic in the last 24 hours, with increasing numbers of respected journalists saying their sources are lending credence to the possibility of major news soon. Like, maybe an announcement on or around August 22?
And now, in the past hour or two, the topic has gone from “hot” to “surface-of-the-sun hot,” thanks to… wait for it… Rick Perry!!
Asked by The Dallas Morning News ’ statehouse reporters about SEC speculation regarding A&M, Perry responded: “I’ll be real honest with you. I just read about it the same time as y’all did. … As far as I know, conversations are being had. That’s frankly all I know. I just refer you to the university and the decision makers over there.”
The key phrase is “As far as I know, conversations are being had.” The response by the governor, a former Aggie yell leader and likely future presidential candidate, went beyond the Twitter and message board speculation that erupted in the last 48 hours.
Perry didn’t say if the conversations were strictly internal at this point or involved direct discussions with the Southeastern Conference.
Maybe Perry’s big announcement on Saturday isn’t that he’s running for president; it’s that Texas A&M is joining the SEC #WAR!!!!
In all seriousness, it’s not clear to what extent Perry is just regurgitating rumors, repeating things he “read about the same time as y’all did,” and to what extent he is actually relaying inside information. But the man is a former Aggie Yell Leader, and he’s been the governor of Texas for a decade, so he presumably knows everybody in all the relevant positions of power. This is causing lots of folks to take notice.
The best Twitter reaction to the news? That belongs to Luke Zim, who writes, “Rick Perry’s run for President just to get A&M in the SEC is the most elaborate college football fanatic move of all-time.”
What fun. Of course if this happens, there are numerous possibiities of what might happen. B12 could simply add another team (eg. corral TCU back from the East) or maybe OU will also go to the SEC. Or maybe OU, Okla St. plus 2 others come to Pac12. Funniest thing would be if Texas agreed to drop LHN and join with the original move to the Pac 12. Would Texas go independent…but where would all of their non-football teams go? So much more fun to speculate about this than about whether the Stock Market will continue to tank and whether Congress will ever get its act together.
I highly doubt Oklahoma goes to the SEC because I think its highly HIGHLY unlikely they would be allowed to split from Oklahoma State and I also doubt that the SEC is interested in taking them both. I think Missouri is far more likely an option if the SEC pulls in two teams from the West.
I also think Texas going independent has a big hitch, what to do with the non-football sports. Maybe cross country isn’t a big issue, but how about their elite basketball or baseball programs? Is sticking them in CUSA or the MW going to be good enough? Will those conferences accept a bunch of non-football members (maybe for enough $$$).
I can still see Texas going to the Pac-12 (alongside the two OK schools and TTech) with the Longhorn Network transitioning to Pac-16 Texas regional network. The Pac-12 media deal had contingencies built in in case of further expansion so adding Texas might be lucrative enough for BOTH the conference and the school, and if anyone can pull it off its Larry Scott, not to mention it gets Texas affiliated with a top tier academic conference as well.