A&M A.D. Byrne Explains Why School Is Leaving Big 12

Since we last talked, our track and field teams won a pair of national championships, baseball played in the College World Series, and our men’s tennis doubles team of Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo won the NCAA Championship.

Old timers tell me collectively it was the best year ever in Texas A&M athletics history. You may have to go back to 1939 when A&M won the national championship in football to find as many good things happening.

But, I’ll leave that debate to those of you who were there.

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This morning, Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin sent a letter to Big 12 Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe, informing him that Texas A&M is submitting an application to join another conference. If the application is accepted, we would leave the Big 12 following this athletic season.

The number one question I’ve received in recent weeks has been, “Why are you not talking about conference realignment?”

The decision was made, I think the right one, that we would have one voice for the University on this topic. That person is University President R. Bowen Loftin. I have confidence in the leadership of Texas A&M to get us to the right place.

Many of you have asked me, “What has changed since last year when you said we should stay in the Big 12?” Those things I said last year are still true. But understand that the Big 12 is considerably different than it was a year ago since the departures of Nebraska and Colorado.

There have also been other developments during the past several months that have caused a great deal of uncertainty within the Big 12. You all know the landscape of the Big 12 Conference was altered by the creation of the Longhorn Network. We rebuffed an attempt to televise high school games on the LHN, arguing that this type of activity was a clear violation of NCAA rules. The most recent attempt by ESPN is to take highlights of high school games as part of news segments. The NCAA is taking a wait and see attitude on the highlights. I disagree with their stance – as do many of my colleagues across the country. We anticipate that ESPN will continue to push the envelope with the Longhorn Network, regardless of Texas A&M’s conference affiliation.

The other issue was an attempt to coerce other Big 12 schools to move their football games in Austin to the Longhorn Network. Our understanding from day one was that every conference school would have the rights to one football game a year, and a handful of basketball games, which has been our longstanding agreement in the Big 12.

Some of you have asked me, “Isn’t it true you had a chance to join Texas in the ESPN venture and would have had a joint channel?”

Three or four years ago we talked about doing a joint flagship channel. I liked the idea, but our fans should know me better than to think I would pass on a $150 million deal for Texas A&M. That never happened.

As President Loftin has repeated over the past several weeks, the goal of our University is to increase the visibility of Texas A&M and our student-athletes, be in a stable and strong conference, and ensure the long-term future of Texas A&M financially.

What are the options? I believe all cards have been on the table. There are advantages and disadvantages of the Bigger Ten, Pac 12, SEC, and staying right where we are.

Conference realignment is something that has torn me up. I have colleagues of more than 20 years in this conference. I take great pride for being part the group that put the Big 12 together in the mid 90s. Sometimes, though, circumstances warrant tough decisions being made.

When the smoke clears on conference realignment for Texas A&M, I’ll give you my perspective on what precipitated our decisions, as well as my optimism for the future.