Texas A&M to the SEC, the Big XII Loses the "12th Man"

The inequities in D-I college football are arguably more glaring than they have ever been. But there is only one place where the inequities are glaring within the same conference.

In the summer of 2010, The Big XII, desperate to hold onto the main teams of their conference, made an almost fictitious offer to the University of Texas. As a way to keep Texas from going to the PAC 10 (now the Pac 12), the Big XII offered to shift revenue sharing for the entire conference and give Texas the biggest share.

Additionally, they agreed to let Texas have their own television station, which would be launched by ESPN.

While the revenue disparities were ruffling some feathers (especially in a conference where each team spent an average of nearly $21 million on football alone last season), the television network proved to be the proverbial final straw. Other Big XII schools expressed concern over a potential recruiting advantage, where Texas could use the television network as recruiting leverage through both their own programming and high school programming.

According to ESPN’s Joe Schad (who has been wrong about this stuff before), Texas A&M has already agreed to join the SEC, which will spend the rest of the year looking for an additional institution to make 14 total. Analysts are describing the move as a win-win for the parties involved.

The SEC, which is already the most dominant conference in the country, will now have an opportunity to expand recruiting and television territories to Texas, while Texas A&M will immediately be involved in a more financially equitable conference.

On Sunday morning’s episode of ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters,” John Saunders concluded the show with a monologue about A&M’s move, by saying “the biggest winners are the fans.” And there’s a lot of truth to that. The Big XII will more than likely continue to crumble over the Texas deal. Schools are going to look for conferences where they can get a good cut of revenue. And because of this, there are going to be less fluff games on every team's schedule.

But if I was asked to identify the biggest loser, I’d probably say it’s the student athletes of Texas A&M. In terms of conference moves that make the least geographical sense, A&M is up there with TCU joining the Big East and Nebraska joining the Big 10. A&M’s closest opponent would be LSU, which would be a near-six-hour bus ride.

While the financial outlook is certainly optimistic, A&M’s student athletes across the board are going to be spending a ridiculous amount of their time traveling, should this deal go through.

All in all, this is an important move, because it is one move closer to reform in football. It is impossible to justify soccer, softball, volleyball and track teams traveling upwards of 600 miles more than a dozen times a year for events. It puts the academic integrity of an entire scholarship athletic program at risk.

I think we are getting closer to exclusive conferences in football and basketball, and we certainly have to be getting closer to major athletes getting compensated; because moves like this indicate clearly that education is not on the forefront.