No A&M regents dissent in vote to join Big Eight
Texas and Texas Tech universities were expected to decide Friday to follow the lead of Texas A&M and Baylor and to join the Big Eight Conference.
Texas A&M regents voted Thursday – one day after Baylor – to sever its nearly 80-year ties to the Southwest Conference, moving it one step closer to extinction.
“We are proud to have been asked and enthusiastic about joining a conference with these eight great universities,” said E. Dean Gage, A&M’s interim president.
“This new alignment not only offers new opportunities for all 12 universities in men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletics, but further establishes an even closer relationship in the areas of teaching, research and public service,” he said.
There was little discussion Thursday among the seven regents who participated in a telephone conference call at a special board meeting.
A quick vote was taken on the motion to leave the conference, and no one dissented. A&M Athletic Director Wally Groff said he had mixed emotions about the vote, saying while it was good for his school, he was “sad for the schools not invited.”
The decision, however, was not difficult, he said. “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward,” Groff said. “We needed to move forward. It was really a decision about what’s best for our athletic program. “Aggies are tradition-minded, and I’m an Aggie. But change is inevitable.” Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas are charter members of the SWC, which organized in 1914. Texas Tech joined in 1956. Baylor’s decision to quit came Wednesday, just days after the Big Eight made its proposal wooing the four so-called “haves” of the SWC. The offer excluded Houston, Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian, who have been dubbed the league’s “have-nots.” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, a former mayor of San Antonio and alumni and former board member of Texas A&M, said the university’s decision marked “the passing of an era.”
“Change is coming all over the world, and I guess the Southwest Conference is going to have to change with it,” Cisneros said Thursday from his Washington office.
“There was a lot to be said for a mainly Texas conference, one with all Texas schools and Arkansas, and in its heyday, it was a glorious conference,” Cisneros said.
“Its high point was in 1969 with Texas and Arkansas, as No. 1 and No. 2, playing each other for the national championship.”
Cisneros noted that the larger conference will heighten competition for A&M and enable the university to recruit nationally as Nebraska and Oklahoma now do.
“It will be one of the strongest conferences with Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, A&M and Texas,” Cisneros said. “Nobody will be able to match it except the Southeast Conference in its good years or the Pac-10. It’s gonna be a strong conference.”
Bryan Dausin, one of a local dynasty of A&M football players, also had mixed feelings about the news.
Dausin was the first of his family to play at A&M as an offensive tackle from 1978 to ’82.
Brother Chris just finished his last season and brother Randy played in the mid-’80s.
“It’s a good opportunity,” said Bryan Dausin, offensive coordinator at Lee High School. “It gives them an advantage in taking (the team) to the next level because they’ll bring their programs into the spotlight.”
But there’s a downside, too, he said.
“It’s unfortunate that the conference is going to be disbanded because there’s a lot of tradition and good memories that have been developed through the years. It means the end of a lot of rivalries. It’s sad to see that come to an end.”
Councilman Lyle Larson, an Aggie who has been attending A&M football games since he was 2 years old, embraced the decision, saying he was looking forward to new rivalries with teams in other states.
“People have a lot of pride in their state,” the 1981 graduate said.
“So whenever we go into Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri, the state for the most part will get behind whatever (Texas) team is competing,” he said.
Larson, son of a 1956 A&M graduate, made the following prediction: “We will dominate the Big Eight like we did the Southwest Conference the past 10 years.”
Lowry Mays, president and chief executive officer at Clear Channel Communications, lauded Wednesday’s action, saying: “I think it puts us in a much more competitive posture. I think it will help the athletic program at Texas A&M immensely.”
Mays, an A&M regent from 1986-91, noted that the football program helps finance a large portion of other athletic programs at A&M, and the combination of a lucrative television contract and increased gate receipts for football will increase those finances.
“For all of the women’s sports and for all of the minor sports, it is football that generates the revenue to run those programs. A large part of that, aside from the gate (receipts), is television revenue, and this will put A&M and those other schools in a position to have a lot more games televised,” Mays said.
“OU, Nebraska and Colorado are going to be somewhat stronger than SMU, realistically, but we’ll be able also to be more competitive in a recruiting situation because I think it will be more attractive to recruits to play in a stronger conference,” Mays said.
A stronger football schedule coupled with a successful record also would make A&M a stronger candidate for a No. 1 ranking, Mays added.
Winston Lorenz, chairman of the San Antonio River Authority board, said he hated to see the breakup of the Southwest Conference, but he believed it was inevitable, given the departures of Arkansas, Baylor and A&M and the likelihood that Texas and Texas Tech will follow suit. He added that the switch will bring new challenges for A&M.
“For sentimental reasons I hate to see it, but I know it’s best because we can’t get any good television contracts,” said Lorenz, class of ’37.
“That’s going to be a tough conference, but I think we can rise to the occasion and it will cause us to really get down and play football,” Lorenz added.
Apolonio Flores, executive director of the San Antonio River Authority, agreed, but he was more upbeat about A&M’s chances for greatness.
“Obviously, it’s a move that needs to be made, and for A&M and ‘t.u.’ it will be a good move,” said Flores, class of ’62.
“What the hell! We’ve been beating all of them (in the Southwest Conference) for so long now, we need to find someone else to beat,” Flores added.
Engineer, developer and farmer Jim Uptmore said one downside of the switch will be longer road trips.
“I try to make all the games, and it’s a lot farther to Oklahoma than to Houston, but I’m going to go wherever the games are,” the 62-year-old Aggie said.
“I have reserved 11 weekends (for games) and have told my family I’ll do whatever they want the other 41,” the businessman and Aggie Club member said. “I’ve told them if they want to get married or remarried, go pick another weekend.”
His attitude about A&M’s membership in the Big Eight was that “it was something that needed to be done” to help lackluster game attendance.
Having played ball at A&M in the Southwest Conference under Coach Gene Stallings, 1972 graduate Ed Ebrom said it was “hard to see it go” even though he knew it was inevitable.
“I’d like to see the Southwest Conference stay intact, but it can’t,” said Ebrom, a manager of medical office buildings. “I don’t think it would survive so I’m not opposed to (the switch).”
Like other Aggies, the change means logging a few more hours on his plane for away games.
“I’m going to go to just as many games as before – all of them,” he said. “Wherever they play, I’ll be there.”
John Yantis, a ’53 graduate, said the Big Eight membership all boils down to one thing: economics.
As to how the Aggies will fare in the Big Eight compared to the SWC, the 62-year-old highway contractor expects his favorite team “to be on a par with all the rest of them.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Southern Methodist University colleges
