Texas A&M Welcomed into the Southeastern Conference

Texas A&M's Zone at Kyle Field was the scene yesterday as Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive welcomed Texas A&M as the 13th member of the SEC.  Slive said he doesn't expect to add another team before the Aggies begin play next season.

Texas A&M will officially join the SEC on July 1, 2012. The Aggies are the first newcomers since South Carolina and Arkansas joined the conference in 1992.

SEC presidents and chancellors voted unanimously for the move on September 6, but the official announcement was delayed because of the possibility of legal action from Baylor and other members of the Big 12 Conference.

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin and Athletic Director Bill Byrne both reiterated A&M's desire to continue playing the University of Texas in football and all other sports. "I would hate to give up the Texas series.  I saw the numbers in the paper this morning.  Am I wrong, 114 years we've been competing?  117, I was wrong.  But we want to continue playing.  That is such a storied, storied tradition and we would like to continue that," Byrne said.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive also talked about the process for creating conference schedules for 13 teams, "We have put together a transition team to begin working on schedules.  We brought 16 members of our staff here today so that they can get acquainted and start conversations.

The goal will be for the transition team to develop a series of options, and when these options are developed, we will take the options to our athletic directors for their consideration.  Once we have schedules worked out, we'll be in a position to announce them."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report