Jackie Sherrill predicts A&M-SEC move will "play out" and questions Big 12's long-term survival in radio interview

Former Texas A&M football coach Jackie Sherrill said the Aggies’ proposed move to the Southeastern Conference is “going to play out” and identified the SEC as one of four 20-team super-conferences that eventually will dot the college football landscape.

Sherrill, who did not include the Big 12 among the four surviving leagues, shared his views today on KZNE radio station in College Station.

Sherrill told the station that he considers the Pac-12 the primary driver in the move to 20-team leagues, with the Big Ten willing to follow suit.

“With 20-team conferences, there’s only room for four,” Sherrill said. “So who are the four conferences? That’s going to be the Big Ten, Pac-10 (now the Pac-12), SEC and ACC, for sure. I don’t know of anybody (else), the Big East, the Big 12, Conference USA or any of the other conferences will ever get strong enough to bounce those teams out.”

With that as a premise, Sherrill identified A&M as a school that “fits” into the existing SEC environment _ with a campus based in a “university setting,” not a metropolitan city _ and could succeed athletically in a league that has seen four of its members combine to win college football’s last five BCS national championships.

“For people to say that A&M cannot compete in the SEC, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” said Sherrill, who coached at Mississippi State from 1991-2003 after leaving A&M following the 1988 season. “I’ve been there. Yes, they can.”

Sherrill also weighed in with thoughts about why the SEC presidents, in an Aug. 14 meeting, opted to take no action in regard to A&M but left open the door to expansion at a later date. The next day, A&M regents unanimously approved a motion to let school president R. Bowen Loftin negotiate on the school’s behalf in regard to conference realignment.

“The attorneys advised the SEC what to do and how to do it. And they also put in parameters,” said Sherrill, who likened A&M’s situation to a spouse seeking a divorce before taking steps to re-marry. “In laymen’s terms, it’s very simple. You have to file for a divorce, you have to obtain a divorce, then you’re going to be courted, then you’re going to get engaged and then you’re going to get married ... The bottom line is what’s best for Texas A&M today, tomorrow, 10 years … and 100 years down the road.”

Sherrill predicted that SEC-related chatter is “not going to be that big of a distraction for the team” once A&M kicks off its season, Sept. 4 against SMU.

“When the ball is kicked off, all this other stuff that we talk about, I can guarantee you the players don’t talk about it,” Sherrill said.

_ Jimmy Burch

 

Comments

[tx truth]

The BIG 12 is Toast- when Nebraska and Colorado left the writing was on the wall- With one team getting perks others do not and wanting money for Tv that excludes the conference- the good teams will be gone and only those like Baylor with no other options will stay- and then only because they do not have any other place to go! Big 12 will lose the BCS gigs because its not that strong of a conference and Texas will have no one to try to dictate to through Beebe.
Oklahoma and mizzou will not be far behind.
No decent team will join a crumbling conference!

[JIm Merritt]

atm needs to either do it or shut the help up. It's like when a guy starts talking how he's going to whoop you azz, the next thing he knows he's on his azz and the fight is over. There are several quality team that could replace atm in the big 12 and the conference excell. What the big 12 need to do is issue a date to atm either stay or they are kicked out of the big 12.

['96 Aggie]

Jim....
I pray the Big 12-3 WILL kick us out... along with the hopes of ever collecting a red penny in exit fees....

[Mike]

Texas's greed wins the day again. I hope the Longhorn Network is a colossal failure.

[Greg]

Well, the coach uses divorce as a parallel. But, in a marriage the wife usually doesn't announce that she loves a third party and intends to bed down with the other dude once she hires a lawyer, files for divorce, sees it through and waits the legal time period. Aggies...how indescreet...shame on you.

[chad j]

Jim,
Apparently you have not been paying attention, A&M is moving on it.

I find it funny that the largest voice in all this is not Aggies but t-sippers that are upset we are not towing their line anymore. I would rather A&M got to the SEC and fail then to not try at all.

[Vincent]

20-member conferences are probably too unwieldy and radical to work (or for college presidents to approve them). Instead, I envision that by mid-decade, you will have three 16-member leagues and two more of 12 members, plus independent Notre Dame, comprise the BCS. (No current BCS member will lose its status.)

Here's the landscape, come 2016:

PAC-16
Coastal: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State (the old Pac-8)
Continental: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech, Utah (Texas, realizing football independence puts the rest of its athletic program in a bind, assimilates the Longhorn Network into the Pac)

SEC
East: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt
West: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Texas A&M
(Missouri finds a home in the SEC after being spurned by the Big Ten, while Tech and N.C. State wind up in the SEC as part of a two-pronged raid of the ACC, with the other prong coming from the...)

BIG TEN
South: Duke, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Virginia
North: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin
(Big Ten takes the academic/athletic core of the ACC, substantially boosting its already strong research and getting a booming area for Big Ten Network subscriptions)

Those are the 16-team conferences. Who are the ones with 12?

ACC
North: Boston College, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia
South: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, South Florida, Wake Forest
(The six ACC remnants take in six from the Big East, which ceases to sponsor football, while its three westernmost members go to a reconstituted...)

BIG 12
East: Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville, Memphis
West: Baylor, Boise State, Brigham Young, Houston, Nevada, Texas Christian
(Surprise -- the Big 12 lives with its four remaining members taking in three from the Big East and filling out with a few others, notably Boise and BYU)

[Tom Landry Fan]

Hilarious. A&M can compete in the SEC? Why didn't they ask Jackie about making A&M the ninth worst chronic NCAA rule violator as of the 23 August 2011 USA Today? gameon.usatoday.com

[Pete]

UNC will never join the SEC; that guy's lost.

[I R A Darth Aggie]

There are several quality team that could replace atm in the big 12 and the conference excell.

Name them.

Also: NotreDOH! isn't one of them.