Sean McManus, CBS sports chairman, said his network would revisit its contract with the Southeastern Conference in the event of conference expansion involving Texas A&M but added: “I don’t anticipate that happening in the very near future.”
McManus’ comment, made to Bloomberg TV, was reported in today’s editions of Sports Business Daily.
“When there is expansion, we’ll sit down and talk to the SEC,” McManus said. “If something materially changes in the conference, we’ll sit down and talk to them. But I don’t anticipate that happening in the very near future.”
An A&M source confirmed tonight that the process of going through legal issues related to a possible move to the SEC is ongoing but could be time-consuming because there are "a lot of complex issues" involved.
The New York Times cited an unnamed, high-ranking SEC official saying he did not expect any movement on the A&M front within the next week because of the ongoing legal issues involved with the school leaving the Big 12.
The idea of A&M joining the SEC has drawn some resistance from Vanderbilt, according to published reports, but it would take four “no” votes from SEC administrators to reject A&M. That does not appear likely. The unnamed SEC official told the Times: “I don’t think the SEC has any strong opinion against expansion.”
The official also said that the SEC was not opposed to the idea of adding Texas A&M and then waiting before bringing in another university. That stance dovetails with the belief of A&M officials, who envision the possibility of being added as a solo team for the 2012 football season with a 14th team joining the league in 2013 to balance the schedule after SEC administrators have had more opportunity to sound out expansion candidates.
_ Jimmy Burch
What very near future means is not this year! Aggies are going to leave the longhorn network long behind. The conflict the LHN created has already run off Colorado and Nebraska and the dominoes are falling. Big 12 aka UT conference is toast.
No decent team will join the big 12 because of the control over the conference UT has be able to obtain- they can get second tier programs like U of H but not a BSC bowl contender.
Posted by: tx truth | August 25, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Didn't Nebraska leave first, and then the Longhorn Network was the only way the Big 12 could convince UT to stay in the conference?
Posted by: tx justice | August 25, 2011 at 10:51 AM