Texas A&M's 2012 Schedule in the New 13-Team SEC

Texas A&M is jumping ship from the Big 12 to...somewhere. The school has given its 42 weeks notice, if it is able to register with "another" conference.

Everyone everywhere knows that this "other" conference is the SEC, the conference that has sported the past five BCS National Champions. What is surprising, however, is the speed at which this move could happen.

Last summer at about this time, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii all left the Western Athletic Conference, and they are all set to play football in the Mountain West Conference next year. A wait of two years.

Texas A&M could be in the SEC in 11 months!

13 Teams?

One of the issues that this could cause for the SEC is the inability to secure a 14th team quickly enough before the logistics of conference-switching become too cumbersome to complete in just a few months.

The SEC football schedule has been set up beautifully now for over a decade. It can easily be argued that, had the Big 12 adopted the SEC's permanent crossover rival system, then Nebraska and Oklahoma would still be rivals and the conference as a whole would be in great shape.

How does a conference schedule work with 13 teams? The MAC hit a major snafu when it expanded to its current 13-team membership back in 2007. Each division played a round robin but...then...teams couldn't play the same number of conference games because of the uneven divisions.

The MAC got it right the next year. The simple solution is that two pairs of teams in the larger seven-team division will not play each other in a given year. Then there will be exactly 18 cross-division games for each division so that all teams play precisely eight conference games.

Who would Texas A&M play if it jumped into the league next year?

Each SEC team cycles through its five non-permanent rivals every five years. Two teams play a home-and-home series and then switch to play other teams.

In 2012, here are the home-and-home series that are set to begin:

Florida vs. Ole Miss
Georgia vs. Alabama
Kentucky vs. Arkansas
South Carolina vs. LSU
Tennessee vs. Miss St
Vanderbilt vs. Auburn

Three of these games, however, will be halted, allowing Texas A&M to pick up a conference game against each of those six teams.

As Texas A&M will obviously be in the West division, it will then play two more SEC-West teams, but these two additional teams will not be able to play each other during the 2012 season.

As we see with Nebraska playing Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan this year, the Big Ten has its new addition playing the "big dogs" of the conference. The SEC, hoping to renegotiate its television contract with some big games of its own, will likely pit Texas A&M against the best teams available.

The teams likely on A&M's schedule

Florida and Ole Miss—The Gators are still in the top half of the SEC East. Though they have slipped since the departure of Tebow, they still hold national clout from their two recent National Championships. And don't think a chance to pit Will Muschamp against the Aggies could be passed up.

Georgia and Alabama—Georgia is also in the top half of the SEC East, with a decent chance at making the SEC Championship game. Alabama, who otherwise would have played Georgia, is a national title contender yet again. Having the Crimson Tide play in College Station would certainly beef up the SEC's marketing in the state of Texas.

South Carolina and LSU—LSU is a must to play Texas A&M in its first season. LSU recruits heavily in Texas and is another national title contender. South Carolina, which would have played LSU in 2012, is also a title contender, though mostly for the title of the SEC East. Spurrier has also led the Gamecocks into Tennessee's spot in the top half of their division.

Arkansas and Mississippi State—Arkansas is a given. Its Southwest Classic against A&M could become the Razorbacks' most important conference rivalry from here on out. Mississippi State was the toughest choice over Auburn, because the chosen team would not get to play against Arkansas. I chose to keep Arkansas vs. Auburn.

What will Texas A&M's conference schedule be in 2013?

No one knows. It is hard to believe that the SEC would stick with such an uneven construct for more than a single year. By 2013, the SEC should have 14 or even 16 teams ready to compete for the conference title. Speculation on how those schedules would work will have to wait.

Some analysts have posed a one-year conference title probation for A&M, as it switches leagues.

This would allow the SEC to keep its even division alignment, with the Aggies playing four games against each division (a switch from Mississippi State to Kentucky, above).

If the league does expand to 16 teams, or maybe even with an expansion to 14, expect the league to add another conference game or begin to market its divisions individually.