FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas rekindled its football relationship with former Southwest Conference rival Texas A&M two years ago, and it looks like the Razorbacks are on the brink of reuniting with the Aggies as conference opponents.
If all the legal issues can be resolved, the SEC is prepared to add Texas A&M of the Big 12 Conference as a 13th member as early as next year. SEC presidents and chancellors voted unanimously in Atlanta late Tuesday to accept Texas A&M if there were no legal impediments to the process.
The addition would be welcomed by Arkansas’ administration.
“It’s a great idea,” Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart said. “They are a first-class university ... and they’re a very well-respected research and teaching institution. It’s a win-win. I’m very much in favor of it.”
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said his preference on the Hogs’ football contract with Texas A&M, which has eight games remaining, would probably be to keep the series at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, if the Aggies join the SEC.
“I guess my knee-jerk reaction is I would like to keep it in Dallas because of what it does for our program, what it does for our institution,” Long said. “All the reasons why we wanted to play that game in the first place, in my mind, are still there, but I have not really played it all through.”
Long also pointed out the addition of the Aggies would alter the SEC’s scheduling system, which might impact the series.
Long said Arkansas officials had been contacted by the Big 12 about considering a move to their league.
“I think that our program is such that there are a number of conferences that would love to have us as a member, but we’re strongly committed to the SEC,” Long said. “I’d be surprised if we weren’t reached out to by other conferences about joining them.
“That happened. It didn’t surprise me, but, again, we’re committed to the SEC. It’s the strongest conference in the country and only going to get stronger.”
Gearhart flew to Atlanta on Tuesday for the meeting with other SEC officials with the intention of voting on Texas A&M’s inclusion when word spread that at least one Big 12 member — Baylor, according to The Associated Press and other outlets — had rescinded its consent to not pursue legal action if the Aggies left.
“It was sort of a 12th-hour kind of thing,” Gearhart said. “It’s in the best interest of our conference to clean up that issue before moving forward. ... If a team wants to leave a conference, it seems to me they should have the right to do that.”
Texas A&M’s potential move was the talk of Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, with virtually every coach fielding a question on the topic.
“I really think we’re headed to the 16-team leagues eventually,” Florida Coach Will Muschamp said. “I think there’ll be four of them at some point.”
LSU Coach Les Miles said he understood why Texas A&M is an attractive program.
“A&M has a great, historic following and is a great, traditional football power,” said Miles, who coached against the Aggies during his four-year tenure as head coach at Oklahoma State (2001-2004) and in stints as an assistant at Oklahoma State and Colorado.
Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said he supported whatever direction SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and the university leaders led the league.
“I don’t know a lot about what direction we’re going as far as the big conferences, going 14 or 16,” Petrino said. “What we would have to do is just adjust to it.”
Petrino said the Razorbacks have four coaches with recruiting responsibilities in Texas.
“We have 23 players from the state on our roster right now, and they’re very, very productive and good football players,” he said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the high school coaching and development of the student-athletes in the state of Texas.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 09/08/2011