SEC Expansion: Why Powerful Conference Should Make Texas A&M 13th Team

The wheels of conference realignment have been spinning out of control with the rumors that the SEC was courting Texas A&M to become its 13th member. Now, the most recent word is that the SEC has effectively passed on Texas A&M, which is a huge mistake.

The news surrounding the Aggies has come full circle in just a day. Yesterday, the buzz was that the SEC was going to invite the Aggies and try to entice Missouri, Clemson or Florida State to join as well. That story was broken by ESPN's Doug Gottlieb after he had conversations with an unnamed official within the A&M athletic department.

Just about 24 hours later, we are headed the other direction. Andy Staples of SI.com tweeted about a release from the SEC that said the following:

" “The SEC Presidents and Chancellors met today and reaffirmed our satisfaction with the present 12 institutional alignment. We recognize, however, that future conditions may make it advantageous to expand the number of institutions in the league. We discussed criteria and process associated with expansion. No action was taken with respect to any institution including Texas A&M.”"

The way it was worded makes you think that it is more of a "not right now" situation when it comes to A&M and not a simple "no." George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard seems to think so. He tweeted the following about the SEC's choice to pass on A&M for now:

"SEC's inaction meaning? We wait to lock down 14th school, probably."

That logic makes sense, as both Clemson and Missouri publicly denied that they were going anywhere, and Florida State has been mum on this whole ordeal. That doesn't make it right, though.

The SEC is the best conference in college football and is a cultural phenomenon all throughout the Southeast, but it could stand to grow its brand.

The rest of the nation views SEC football much in the same way they view NASCAR. They realize how big a deal it is for their fans, but they don't really understand why it is the way it is. Moving the SEC as far west as Texas would go a long way toward making their brand of football a national phenomenon.

I'll admit that College Station, Texas isn't exactly New York or Los Angeles, but it's only an hour-and-a-half from the fourth largest city in the country (Houston), and it's no more than a few hours to both Austin and Dallas.

With the largest cities in SEC country being places like Birmingham and Jacksonville, having Houston and Dallas in the fold would certainly be welcomed growth for the conference. With larger cities come larger viewing audiences—and with larger viewing audiences come larger television contracts.

Those markets are just as important on the field as they are off the field. Houston and Dallas are two of the most fertile recruiting areas in the entire nation. The SEC occasionally pilfers a player or two from those areas, but outside of LSU, no school spends a lot of time there. That would change with SEC games being played locally and shown more widely on television. 

More than anything else, Texas A&M just feels like an SEC school. Like most SEC schools, football is king, and basketball, although successful, plays a distant second fiddle. The school is located in a small town that really supports the institution, and Aggie football Saturdays are everything.

The SEC has been clear that this is not the end of expansion talk. In their statement, they admitted that they might return to this issue at a later date. If they're smart, they'll revisit this scenario sooner rather than later, and they'll make Texas A&M their 13th member with or without a 14th team.