Published September 25, 2011 - 4:13pm
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Full press release:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (September 25, 2011) – The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors, acting unanimously, announced today that Texas A&M University will join the Southeastern Conference effective July 1, 2012, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2012-13 academic year.
The addition of Texas A&M will increase the SEC membership to 13 institutions. It is the first expansion for the SEC since September of 1991 when the University of South Carolina joined the league. The University of Arkansas joined the SEC in August of 1991. With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, the SEC was the first conference to split into divisions and add a conference championship game in 1992.
“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.”
“The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve,” said Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin. “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.”
Texas A&M , located in College Station, will also be the third institution in the Southeastern Conference to hold membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, joining University of Florida and Vanderbilt University. Texas A&M has an enrollment of 50,000 students, ranking as the sixth-largest university in the country, with 360,000 former students worldwide.
Texas A&M also adds to the athletic excellence of the SEC. Last season, the Aggies won three NCAA team titles (men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, women’s basketball) and finished eighth in the prestigious Learfield Sports Director’s Cup all-sport rankings.
“On behalf of our presidents, chancellors, athletics directors, students and fans, I welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “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.”
The Aggies sponsor 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.
They’re heeeeeeeerrrrreeee…Now, who will even it out to 14? Missouri? West Virginia? Navy? Oklahoma? Texas? South Florida? An ACC school?
I can’t wait to find out! I was kinda hoping for less stability throughout the NCAA, but maybe adding the 14th will start it all over again.
To be truthfully honest. Since the Big East is about to fold. Why dont the SEC try and get South Florida?
I’ve wondered that myself. It’s one of the biggest schools in the nation. The fans always seem to be really into it when I see them on TV. Tampa makes more sense than Tallahassee in terms of market. They only bring those things though. The football program would have to be groomed, and I would guess that they are more of a party school. So, I don’t know.
USF is terrible!
Who is roadtrippin’ out to College Station in 2012?
SDS tour bus will make a stop there.
I will go to College Station in 2012. The fans at Kyle Filed are always emothional. even when the play Baylor or some other lack luster school.
What the….Texas is not in the Southeast. Besides now we are uneven at 13.
i do like it myself who needs another cow college we already have one that is state that enough
i do not like that what i was trying to say
Guess Texas A&M got tired of hearing ’2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate’ song and decided to join a real conference.
Thank you Mr. Starr…
Welcome Aggies, See ya Saturday.. WPS!!
If this latest expansion is about media markets instead of who I’m about to suggest, then it won’t be. But as a life long Dawg fan, I would love to get Clemson back on Georgia’s schedule on an annual basis like it used to be back in the good old days. What a fantastic rivalry it was. Clemson with it’s rabid fan base, God Bless um, fits that of an SEC profile program. Who remembers the Lake Hartwell flotillas ??
I think Clemson would be a more competive school all around in the SEC, the South FL.
But do you foresee any school wanting to leave the ACC? I don’t. Basketball is their bread & butter, the “football schools” have it made, the ACC’s management has them headed in the right direction, & their fans seem content with what they’ve got. I’d love to have a few ACC schools join up with us in the SEC (UNC, VT, at the top of the list) but I don’t think they’d do it.
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bring in Ga Tech they use to be part of the SEC
Looking forward to seeing A&M play the Crimson Tide. Welcome aboard, Aggies!