Texas A&M-SEC Expansion: Baylor Block May Set a Precedent for the Entire Sport

What Baylor did yesterday was both desperate and stupid, but it may end up changing the way conference expansion plays out from here on.

Baylor threatened to sue Texas A&M and the SEC under the guise of “preserving Texas football.” It went so far as to release this statement about it the other day.

In reality, Baylor is looking out for their own best interests, just like every other school involved in realignment is.

However, there is absolutely no merit to this suit whatsoever.

For starters, this letter from Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe clearly states that every school—that includes Baylor—agreed to let Texas A&M go without legal action.

Furthermore, Texas A&M is a government school which falls under the same “sovereign immunity” umbrella that ultimately dismissed Mike Leach’s lawsuit against Texas Tech.

Though entirely unfounded, Baylor’s move could potentially start a trend when it comes to conference realignment.

Take Syracuse, for instance.

If they had a plan in place to move to the SEC, a school like Rutgers could file a legitimate claim because Syracuse is a private university—assuming they don’t agree to let them go beforehand.

There aren’t nearly as many private schools in the big conferences, but some of the big names are, including Syracuse, Miami, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Boston College.

None of these schools are presently being considered in conference expansion, but there is a chance that Syracuse moves to the Big 10 or ACC and that Boston College moves to the Big 10.

I am by no means a legal expert and there may be certain loopholes and stipulations that could add other teams to the suable list—please leave a comment if you know of any—but what Baylor is doing to Texas A&M simply will not work.

Again, I do not know how reasonable this lawsuit would have been if Baylor did not agree to it beforehand. However, given the right circumstances, it may have had some legitimacy.

If there would have been a significant difference, expect a lot more lawsuits to be coming out of these smaller schools that figure to be left on the outside, looking in on conference expansion.

Baylor has hurt their national reputation by threatening to sue the Aggies. However, given the right circumstances, another school could use the same exact ploy and get away with it.

Hopefully it does not come down to legal action, but the messier that conference realignment gets, the more likely it becomes.