A Realignment Manifesto by an Aggie

The meeting he is referring to is a big money meeting at Barton Creek Resort outside of Austin. The BMAs have drug along Bill Byrne, President Loftin and the BOR for this meeting. Hello fireworks!

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Given that I keep hearing the debate from Texas A&M's leaders who agreed to this Big 12 proposal that this is about a great financial TV deal and something they couldn't refuse, I was compelled as a proud Class of '87 former student to write this piece this morning. I know it blurs the lines between a journalist and university graduate, so I apologize in advance. But with these historic times ahead and an important stakeholders meeting just three days away, I feel I need to publish this discussion piece. Please feel free to copy and paste to your private e-mail lists of Aggie friends and family....and especially to the people in attendance on Saturday. The leaders will want to focus on what a great TV deal this will be, but Aggies need to be focused and vigilant (but respectful!) about what is good for this university and for Aggie fans, supporters, and donors. This isn't all about TV revenues so don't let A&M management take the discussion in that direction. The athletic department relies more on ticket revenues and donations than TV revenues. This is about what Aggies want and what Aggies will support.



Realignment is More Than TV Revenue; It's About Aggies


This is a historic time in college football with the landscape of conference partnerships and the talk of super conference realignment filling the air waves, social networks, and Internet services from the Pac-10 to the Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, and Big East. These potential moves will profoundly affect college football fans, donors, student-athletes, and employees of these respective universities. So with so much on the line, why is it that television executives seem to be the ones making all the moves here?

And as the nation watches all of these poker games and stealth maneuverings by college presidents and athletic directors to squeeze every last million out of the TV networks, is anybody even considering the preferences of the customer - the season ticket holders and the donors of these schools that simply want to watch an entertaining product on Saturday and have a little tailgating fun before and after the game?

During this frantic week of Texas Hold’em, has anybody from Texas or Texas A&M asked the fans and stakeholders of the university what they prefer? Let’s look a little deeper into the situation currently playing out at Texas A&M.

Who has more at stake with realignment - Bill Byrne who will likely retire in the next couple of years and extricate himself from Texas A&M? How about that ABC/ESPN TV executive punching numbers on his calculator? How about Don Beebe’s financial analyst who has been instructed to unleash his creative juices to come up with his boss’s $20 million promise to Texas, A&M, and OU? Has anybody mentioned the customer in all of these discussions about TV sets, school networks, and severance penalty distributions? Aren’t they the ones with most at stake? If my math is correct, aren’t a majority of the bills still paid by loyal former students and fans in the form of ticket sales, concessions, merchandising, and especially generous donations?

Who finances the student-athlete training facilities, stadiums, and arenas? Is ABC/ESPN’s name on Reed Arena? Did Fox Sports finance the construction of Kyle Field’s end zone expansion a decade ago? Is the CBS Sports logo mounted on the side of the new state-of-the-art track facility? Did Comcast donate considerable sums of money to build the Taj Mahal of athletic facilities, or was it major Texas A&M donors that built the Bright Complex?

This decision made on conference realignment will have significant impact on the university for 20-30 years. It could change the very culture of the athletic department. It could change the Bryan-College Station community, and it will certainly change the game day experience for all Aggie fans, former students, and donors.

So my question is? Why are university executives and TV executives allowed to make this decision in a bubble without some type of formal feedback or formal public hearings where donors, students, and fans can directly address these decision makers and let their voices be heard in person and not on a Facebook page?

First and foremost, this decision affects the fans, stakeholders, and supporters of Texas A&M athletics. It is the fan that will accept and live with the consequences of these monumental decisions for 30 years….not these executives with a short time horizon left on their careers. They are making short term money decisions on TV revenues that will have a longstanding impact on the enjoyment and experience of the Texas A&M fan.

I say this because CLEARLY the sentiment from the rank-and-file Aggie faithful is a desire to move to the SEC. I’ve seen polls with sample sizes in the thousand and I have not seen one that had an SEC approval rating of less than 90%. Not one poll I’ve seen has had an approval rating over 10% for a move to the Pac-10 or remaining in a smaller Big 12.

We’ve heard numerous instances of high dollar donors threatening to pull their support and their dollars from the athletic department if A&M doesn’t accept the SEC offer on the table. Many long-time season ticket holders have e-mailed me saying that this latest episode of management not following the wishes of their client base is the last straw. They will cut off ties to Texas A&M athletics until a change is made and the people are heard.

This is a fascinating time at Texas A&M and college athletics. This is the first time in my lifetime where a university’s former students and fan base have so loudly and unanimously demanded a path for its university that its leaders did not choose. This is really very similar to what has happened in national politics at the grassroots level - does the Tea Party come to mind? In sports, I can think of only one other event that is similar when Bud Adams asked for public funding on a new stadium for his Houston Oilers and threatened to leave if he didn’t get it. Despite city leaders who favored raising taxes to pay for the stadium bonds, the citizens of Houston united, forced a vote, and told Mr. Adams to hit the road. Why? Because it was a bad deal for the citizens of Houston and they acted.

So why is the SEC deal so attractive to A&M fans, and why is the Big 12 Lite proposal so despised? In my best James Carville Louisiana twang - it’s the games stupid. As a college fans, what excites Aggies more - a home conference schedule consisting of Iowa State, Baylor, Missouri, and Oklahoma or games with LSU, Arkansas, Alabama, and Ole’ Miss? Is there ANY question that Kyle Field sells out all four SEC games while only the OU game will approach a full house. Increased season ticket sales for an SEC home schedule will also improve attendance to the directional school non-conference September match-ups that in recent years have seen 12,000-15,000 empty seats.

Is there any question that an SEC schedule will energize and motivate the fan base to attend more events, buy more tickets, and donate more money? Well, based on the reaction from the Aggie nation we’ve seen the past two days that question has been answered with an emphatic YES.

continued on next post....