Texas A&M and SEC Expansion: College Football Realignment Is Stuck in the Mud

It has been ten days since the Presidents of the member institutions of the Southeastern Conference voted unanimously to accept Texas A&M's application to join the conference. Unfortunately, the Aggies are no closer to being members of the SEC than they were a month ago.

A process that should be relatively simple has been delayed indefinitely by legal threats and an unwillingness by conference commissioners to make the first move.

Texas A&M was accepted into the SEC pending a waiver of legal action by the member schools of the Big 12. Despite previously waiving the right to sue, Baylor reneged on their promise and refused to give up the right.

This resulted in A&M's move to the SEC being hung up in limbo.

With A&M's move to the SEC all but assured, Oklahoma became wary of being a member in a glorified SWC and began to cast wandering eyes at the Pac-12.

Evidently the Okies have grown sick of Texas throwing their weight around and want no part of a conference of former SWC teams along with the dregs of the Big 8. Oklahoma State will follow the lead of their brethren in Norman to whatever conference they join.

The problem is that the conference commissioners are acting like the president of the math club on a date with the captain of the pep squad at prom. They are terrified to make the first move.

Both Mike Slive and Larry Scott are afraid of being cast as the villain who destroyed the current makeup of college football and ushered in the era of super conferences.

Meanwhile, Texas is considering a move to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. evidently the ACC is the only conference out there that will allow Texas to keep their LHN intact. With a debt load of over $200 million and a yearly debt service that has to approach $10 million, it is understandable how Texas would want to keep the extra $10 million in revenue the LHN brings in each year.

It does not matter whether anyone is watching the network or not; Texas needs to keep all avenues of revenue open.

in the meantime, Baylor's desperation has reached unprecedented levels as Ken Starr has traveled to the nation's capital in order to lobby Congress to intervene with college football realignment.

One would hope that our Congressional leaders could see through Starr and Baylor's self-serving and hypocritical motives, but we are talking about Congress here.

So here we sit, with the Pac-12 unwilling to admit OU and OSU until the SEC accepts Texas A&M. The SEC will not accept A&M until a waiver of suit is signed, again, and that will not happen until OU decides to stay in the Big-12 or go to the Pac-12. It is a giant game of musical chairs where the music never stops and everyone is afraid to pull a chair out.

College football fans are left on the sidelines wondering where their schools will be playing next year. Hopefully, someone will make the first move soon.