Sunday, August 14, 2011

Aggies' Non-Invite Isn't Such a Bad Idea


There has been much dialogue all week in regards of Texas A&M potentially moving to the SEC that has added to the everlasting rumors of realignment in college sports. As this convoluted turmoil of disoriented mergers possibly materialize, rather than realizing the trouble the Aggies could encounter in a tougher conference, we are often stuck in a confused state of mind when college football teeters on the fringe of tumult.

But in this realm of upheaval, where it has become a rite in college football and where the people are accustomed to the nonsense of the conference commissioners playing musical chairs, many believe this merger could spell trouble for the Aggies. For now, anyway, the SEC has chosen not to invite Texas A&M into the conference, and fortunately for Aggies' fans, the conference is remaining at 12 teams.

After a meeting of SEC presidents and chancellors, Florida President Bernie Machen, the chair of the SEC presidents, said the league confirmed its gratification with its current 12-team alignment.

“We recognize, however, that future conditions may make it advantageous to expand the number of institutions in the league,” the statement said. “We discussed criteria and process associated with expansion. No action was taken with respect to any institution, including Texas A&M.”

The easiest path is for Texas A&M to stay in the Big 12 with all the pressure in the Southeastern Conference, a conference that arguably have the deepest football programs in the nation and claims the national spotlight. It appears that Texas A&M, a program which is unhappy by Texas' Longhorn Network, is staying home in the Big 12 conference and won't be leaving for another conference at this very moment.

The people in the Lone Star State really don't want the Aggies to leave for the SEC, though the program can rise into the national spotlight but also fade within the conference of much talent and where the deepest competition exist in the sphere of college football.

For all the hyperbole by the Southeastern Conference official who announced Sunday that the SEC will remain a 12-team conference and that they have no intentions of inviting the Aggies to join the conference -- at least as it stands for now -- in what inarguably is the biggest chaotic debate ever with the likings of Utah and Colorado among them -- the realignment is a hassle with too much chaos.

It's not such a bad suggestion that the Aggies were snubbed, in fact, it's truly good judgment for A&M to remain in the Big 12. This is the age when college football isn't as amusing as the NFL, deprived of a legitimate eight-game playoff system or even a commissioner to oversee an association in tremendous disarray.

Nor does the NCAA care to institute an eight-game playoff system, but realign conferences to bring more excitement and balance the welfare of competition for bowl games? If the Southeastern Conference dares to venture in the Big 12 and lure a few elite teams from other conferences, then it seems like too much of a struggle to attempt such an anarchic changeover.

Few were actually content with the possibility of Texas A&M joining the SEC and, at one point as earlier of last week, it appeared rational and greater than ever. And so it ends -- let’s only hope -- the flip-flopping of teams, the befuddling and tiring rumors of potential realignment in a sport that really doesn't have to move teams around but needs to focus all its attention on a moderate playoff system.

As much as the Aggies could hate anything of the Longhorns, disgruntled of the notion that the Texas Longhorns have their own network, the university feel the network is a violation of NCAA rules. The aspect of the Longhorns Network broadcasting coverage of two live football games, as one of those games are expected to be a conference showdown, had never been talked about among the Big 12 athletic directors.

Yet the NCAA, as we all know by now, is so chaotic and largely corrupted by all the scandals of improper benefits and the lack of fair punishments handed down to universities for violating NCAA rules. So now, again, we are left to wonder if the restrictive rules of any collegiate representative contacts will ever play a role in why Texas A&M is fine by the move, if the change ever happens.

This probably won't happen real soon when the Aggies are members of the Big 12 as of Sunday, which could be unlawful for the SEC to invite the Aggies at this time. If they ever desired to have the Aggies join, the proper time would have been Sunday as the parties negotiated.

It's almost believable to assume that the SEC is just waiting for A&M to request admission to the SEC, but it all seems implausible. The truth, however, is as clear as those cadets at the Corps of Cadets program at Texas A&M. That could mean the Aggies may not be moving to the SEC, still representing the conference of pointless tension under the guise of college football.

The criticism was even fairly kindly -- Southern hospitality, if you will -- when all the talk circled Texas A&M being sick and tired of Texas, an archrival in Austin, Texas. What swirls around A&M is abnormal and, if the Aggies move to the SEC, it would absolutely be an awful move -- a regrettable decision in truth.

For those who believe it already, with all evidence of course, the Aggies are so tired of Texas, the university no longer wishes to be in the Longhorns' presence, insulting and fighting the University of Hook'em Horns. They are very furious with their biggest rival -- never mind that Texas is the superior university and should be drawing other schools to its prominent conference, but in the meantime, the Longhorns are outlandishly pushing their rivals away from the Big 12.

This is what happens when a preeminent university becomes shamefully egotistic and self-serving, encouraging its foes to leave elsewhere to avoid the nonsense of greediness and aversion. And Texas A&M's flirtation with the SEC is prompted by Texas, an archenemy upsetting the mind of Aggies' fans and even the trustees.

The investment of time and money by joining with ESPN, spending over $300 million to broadcast its own television network, tells us Texas wants to have its cake and eat it, too. The worshippers of college football believe Texas A&M wants to emotionally leave for a change of scenery, and more importantly, move far away as possible from the Longhorns. For a long time, the Aggies have deliberated this move -- a new direction that seems impossible and more like an illusion.

The cameras, if the Aggies are ever welcomed to the SEC, will flash often and the pressure could raise and alter the Aggies' personality in one of the toughest conferences where they'll be thrashed by stronger and deeper opponents in the Southeastern Conference.

This is essentially the Aggies asking for trouble and seemingly the university doesn't qualify for the Southeastern Conference and they haven't found their football identity in the Big 12, merely accounting for one conference championship and one BCS bowl game 13 years ago. Even in this new culture of football the Aggies haven't dominated, winning only three division titles in 16 years, prevailing once in 1998 when the school one a division championship.

Sorry, but the Aggies wouldn't survive in the SEC and were better off staying the Big 12. So now, I guess Texas A&M can engage in a battle with the archrivals and take it out on the Longhorns.

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