Texas A&M and SEC Expansion: Baylor's Actions Define Cowardice

Once again, Baylor is sticking their nose where it does not belong, according to The Houston Chronicle. It appears that the Baptists on the Brazos learned nothing in the past 15 years. When Texas and Texas A&M were talking about joining the Big 8 in 1995, word got to Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock of the impending conference expansion.

Bullock is a Texas Tech grad who attended law school at Baylor. He used his political influence to force A&M and Texas to take Baylor and Texas Tech along with them when the Southwest Conference disbanded and the Big 12 was formed.

For the past 15 years, Baylor has been the definition of incompetence on the gridiron. Baylor is 18-101 in conference play since joining the conference in 1996. Their best finish ever was the 4-4 record from the 2010 team. Baylor seemed intent on proving that a private school simply could not compete with the large public universities in the conference.

In 2011 Baylor appears to have possibly their best team in two decades and opened with a surprising 50-48 win over No. 14 TCU. After receiving a ton of quality press after their victory, Baylor resorted back to well, being Baylor.

Not content with success, they had to remind other why they can never be taken seriously in big time collegiate athletics. Baylor has had 15 years to improve their athletic department to where another conference would view them as desirable.

After failing to do this, they seem intent on preventing other schools from expanding their athletic horizons. By threatening to sue the SEC, the Bears have mucked up an already drawn out realignment process for Texas A&M.

The SEC presidents unanimously voted last night to accept A&M as the 13th member of the conference effective in July 2012. Since Baylor has gone back on their word regarding refraining from taking legal action, the process will be drawn out for at least another day or two.

It seems that Baylor's motto is, "If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em.

The sad thing is that there are multiple examples in college football today of how Baylor could take advantage of their current position and be a stronger program in the next decade because of them.

One need only to look at Boise State and TCU to see programs that have raised their level of play in non-automatic qualifier conferences to where they routinely make BCS bowls. TCU is a tremendous story of a program that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and built themselves up into a level of success not seen in Fort Worth for the past 80 years.

Baylor could go to the Mountain West, Western Athletic, or Conference USA conferences and be immediately competitive for conference titles. Instead, they want to badger on of the public universities in their state for reasons that defy logic.

If Baylor wants to remain in the Big 12, their best shot is for A&M to leave and OU and Texas to iron out their differences and continue to lead the conference. By muddying up the process for A&M, Baylor is increasing the likelihood of Oklahoma getting fed up with this process and jumping to the Pac-12.

Texas wants the Big 12 to remain, and Oklahoma can probably be convinced to stick around. Baylor has a chance to remain in an AQ conference if they get out of the way and let the big dogs sort out which fire hydrant belongs to whom.

Baylor's fear is getting in the way of this entire process. They are terrified of being left out of an AQ conference. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to improve like TCU did, they view it only in a negative light.

Baylor needs to get over their fear and stop engaging in spiteful antics. Baylor is still trying to distance itself from one of the most disgusting scandals in the history of college basketball. They do not need to be known as the school that will sue when they do not get their way.

No conference wants to bring in a school that will sue their members. Baylor is flushing any chance they have at finding a home in an AQ conference down the toilet with their antics.

Even though they have repeatedly failed to prove it on the field, Baylor needs to grow up and act like they deserve a seat at the big boy table in collegiate athletics. Their actions over the next week could irreparably harm the future of their program.

They need to start treating this like it is a business, instead of acting like a spiteful child upset that they did not get as much ice cream as their brother.