In an announcement Sunday afternoon, the SEC made the long-awaited move of Texas A&M to the conference official following a unanimous decision by SEC presidents and chancellors and weeks of waiting.
The Aggies will officially join the school's new conference on July 1, 2012, making this football season the school's last in the Big 12. Postponed due to opposition from other schools unwilling to waive the right to sue the SEC, that talk of opposition had died down in recent days as the national media cast its collective eyes on yet another last-second survival by the Big 12. It's unclear at this point whether or not those schools waived their right to sue or if the SEC removed that condition for acceptance.
Here's what A&M president R. Bowen Loftin said about the move:
The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve. We are excited to begin competition in the nation’s premier athletic conference. This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically, and I believe the Southeastern Conference gives the Aggies the best situation of any conference in the country.
At least Loftin has dropped the disingenuous claim that the Aggie move east is in the best interests of the state of Texas.
But the move leaves only one thing to be said: Texas fight, Texas fight, and it's goodbye to A&M. Catch ya later, little bro. Or not.