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In the latest orangebloods update:
Multiple sources tell Orangebloods.com Texas A&M has enough votes on its nine-member Board of Regents to join the Southeastern Conference and could announce that move as soon as next week.
The sources said A&M and SEC commissioner Mike Slive are now working feverishly to convince Oklahoma to join the SEC with the Aggies rather than follow Texas to the Pac-10.
Sources said Slive was meeting with A&M officials on Saturday.
There is speculation among several sources in the Big 12 that if OU had to choose between the Pac-10 and SEC, it would choose the SEC. But sources close to OU say, up to this point, the Sooners have made a decision to go with Texas and not break up one of college football's most unique rivalries.
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione was quoted in the Tulsa World last week saying the Sooners are committed to going where Texas goes.
Sources close to the SEC/Texas A&M talks say Oklahoma is still listening to proposals from the SEC. But the sources said the SEC is not interested in Oklahoma State. Trying to split OU and Oklahoma State could cause resistance in the Oklahoma Legislature, which appears to have more members who've graduated from OSU than OU, according to an informal count.
A&M APPEARS COMMITTED TO SEC
A&M's charge to the SEC is being led by Texas A&M System chancellor Mike McKinney and A&M regent Gene Stallings, who won a national le as coach at Alabama in 1992. That charge includes the argument to Oklahoma that it's better to join the SEC from a regional, financial and athletic standpoint than it is to go west to the Pac-10.
A call to Gov. Rick Perry's office Saturday by Orangebloods.com resulted in a statement from Perry released by spokesman Rob Johnson. The quotes from Perry in the statement were the same he made to the Austin American-Statesman on Thursday.
"We'll let the board of regents at the appropriate universities make the decisions," Perry said. "If it was up to me, I'd have an all-Texas conference.
"I kind of like the old Southwest Conference. But at the end of the day, it will be decisions that each individual university will make."
Sources close to Perry had initially indicated Perry would work to keep Texas and Texas A&M together. But that no longer appears to be the case. When he was asked specifically by the Statesman if Texas and A&M should stay together, Perry said:
"I think to try to sit here and try to play out every scenario that you or anybody else can come up with is not particularly productive. I think what is productive is for boards of regents to be thoughtful; to make wise, good decisions for the university."
It doesn't take binoculars to read between those lines - Perry appears to be letting McKinney, his former chief of staff, do what he thinks is best. Stallings said this week on different radio shows he thinks A&M can stand alone without Texas.
Sources close to Texas have indicated if A&M doesn't stay aligned with Texas in a move to the Pac-10, the Longhorns would not be scheduling A&M in any sport any time soon.
If so, the opening line to the Texas A&M fight song (which is almost entirely about Texas), "Good-bye to Texas University ...", could be taken quite literally.
Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott met with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State officials on Saturday in Oklahoma City before meeting with Texas A&M officials on Sunday, sources said.
A meeting of the Big 12 South athletic directors with Larry Scott is tentatively planned for Monday in Dallas, sources said.
