Realignment and Redaction

                                 

Well, it seems as if the slightly deranged Governor of Texas, Yosemite Sam Rick Perry reached an epiphany during his monster weekend prayer meeting: He's taking a break from destroying the state of Texas to champion his Alma mater, Texas A&M, moving to the SEC. While part of me is ecstatic that this could rekindle the push for realignment to super-conferences, my worry is this move will snowball with other programs in A&M's position. I simply don't understand the reasons behind it. Moving to the SEC is near suicide for a program which, despite playing the likes of Kansas, Baylor, and Iowa State, is a whole three games over .500 the past nine years. Even if they move in to the SEC East, the only team they regularly beat is perennial doormat, Vanderbilt. One of the best parts of college football is the rivalries, and the biggest part of those rivalries is geography. By trying to escape from under the shadow of Texas, the Aggies are going to pull the rug out from one of the best rivalries in the game, even if it has been one sided recently. Although the Aggies have a natural rivalry with Arkansas and LSU, and while I'm sure the SEC is licking its chops at the thought of opening the state of Texas to outside recruiting, I can't imagine the SEC TV dollars that A&M will gain can offset the misery of going 4-8, every year.

In order for this to go through, I imagine the deal would have to include Texas moving to the Big 10 (opening a GIANT revenue stream for the 'horns); as soon as Texas leaves, say goodbye to Oklahoma and, by proxy, the Big 12. Oddly enough, there are exactly two institutions that are ultimately helped by this move, at least short term, neither of which are Texas A&M...the SEC and Texas. Short term, this move may benefit the Aggies in one way; namely, their fans (as well as Texas Tech/Baylor fans) won't be paying millions of dollars in subscriber fees to the Longhorn Network, most of which would end up in the pockets of UT.

On the other hand, A&M moving into a better football conference will also ensure that they spend a lot of their extra revenue updating their facilities, improving their recruiting, and rededicating their overall commitment to winning football games. Right now, they're in a pretty comfy position of beating inferior teams every year, while not being expected to realistically compete against Big Brother. They'll probably get smoked their first couple of years, and have to be careful they don't lose what little momentum they have started gaining in the Big 12. It's tough to stomach one of the best rivalries in college football getting thrown out the window for the sake of conference expansion, but nobody said sacrifice would be easy. Make no mistake, the driving force behind this move is UT's greediness and they seem hell bent on making sure they maximize their profit no matter the expense to the sport.

In related news: I still hate everything about Texas. With a passion.

In actual news: Arkansas' star running back, Knile Davis, fractured his left ankle in practice and will miss the entire season after undergoing surgery. This is a HUGE loss for Arkansas and will undoubtedly cost them some games and, by extension, a shot at the SEC title game. Juniors Dennis Johnson and Ryan Wingo are now tasked with picking up the slack. Not the way the Hogs were hoping to start their 2011 campaign.