Texas A&M Regents Have a Change of Heart

At Wednesday's emergency meeting, the Aggies' board of regents says they'll vote yes on adding Oklahoma and Texas into the Southeastern Conference.

Texas A&M has apparently, and predictably, had a change of heart.

The A&M Board of Regents staged an emergency meeting on Wednesday and when the meeting finished, the announcement was made that the Aggies will vote to admit Oklahoma and Texas as members of the Southeastern Conference.

That’s a departure from what Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork told media gathered for SEC Media Days last week, when he explicitly stated that A&M wants to be the only Texas school in the SEC.

Afterward, the board made an announcement.

“The board concluded that this expansion will enhance the long-term value of the SEC to student athletes and all of the institutions they represent — including Texas A&M.”

While the regents recommended to Texas A&M president Katherine Banks that the school vote yes, the board of regents' own vote was not unanimous. The Athletic's Sam Khan reported that regent Mike Hernandez III opposed the motion.

The Board had concerns about the communication process relating to this matter,” the regents’ statement said, but “today the Board received the information it needed to properly consider the long-term ramifications of a possible expansion.”

After Bjork's comments last week, it was widely presumed that Texas A&M would try to convince other SEC schools to block the Longhorns and possibly the Sooners. Instead, it now seems imminent that not only will the SEC vote to let them in, but the vote will likely be unanimous.

OU and Texas already applied for membership into the SEC earlier this week. They both could announce their future plans at emergency meetings of their respective Boards of Regents on Friday morning. 


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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.