Behind all of the blogs, ESPN updates, newspaper stories, press releases and media uproar surrounding the conference realignment debate, rested the student-athletes, coaches, fans and families.
Behind all of the television contracts, multi-million dollar packages and colossal football revenues, rested the non-revenue sports with little to no say in the future. Despite dreams and desires to join the SEC or Pac-10, staying in the Big 12 was the best-case scenario for Texas A&M athletes who don’t wear football helmets.
“From day one, we have said that our first choice was to stay in the Big 12 conference,” Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne said. “We talked with our athletes and coaches and that was their preference as well. I can’t say that one sport had a preference over another.”
Although the limitless revenues that the SEC and Pac-10 projected were enticing, the added expenses were going to be tough to overcome. Non-revenue sports already spend a majority of their budgets on travel. A conference spanning half the country would only make things worse.
“In the big picture, for a lot of these non revenue sports travel is where a lot of the expense is,” volleyball Head Coach Laurie Corbelli said. “Soccer takes 35 people on the road. Can you imagine sending 35 players to Washington, Oregon, Northern California? That’s expensive. I’m just really pleased that we are staying. I think the Pac-10 would have been interesting but a lot of headaches with the travel.”
Not only would the cost of travel be felt by the finance department, but the Aggie student-athletes would find themselves flying to the Pacific or Atlantic coasts in the middle of academic semesters.
“When there were initial talks of expansion, I was very concerned about all of our sports,” Byrne said. “Somebody needed to stand up for the student-athlete. We just can’t do this to our student-athletes and expect them to go to class.”
A common sentiment among the A&M coaching staffs was the fact that the Big 12 is already one of the top athletic conferences in the country.
“The super-conference was the Big 12 already,” women’s basketball Head Coach Gary Blair said. “Why did we need to make another? We’ve had the best women’s basketball conference for the last four or five years. I think our men’s basketball was ranked No. 2. Football was No. 2. Volleyball was No. 2 or 3. Track has been No. 1. I thought we were the super-conference, so I didn’t see a need for us to change.”
Perhaps the most important factor to A&M coaches, however, was maintaining the importance of the intra-state rivalries with Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas.
“This conference is built on rivalries,” Blair said. “You shouldn’t split up any of those. Why should we? You’re not going to split up Auburn-Alabama, UCLA-USC, Stanford-Cal,or even Harvard-Yale. So, why should we be thinking that far out of the box? That’s why we have non conference play.”
Conference realignment would have also added challenges for A&M teams in recruiting.
“There’s no way that if this would have happened two years ago, that I would have probably three Kansas City kids,” Blair said. “Those kids want to play within a corridor which is going South and North where their parents can see them on TV and go to their home games and away games. We need to stay in this part of the country. Do you want to open up the doors for the West Coast teams to come into Texas more than they already are to recruit?”
A&M will continue to maintain most of its recruiting pipelines, but the departure of Nebraska in 2011 and Colorado in 2012 will change the Aggies’ target landscape. Several A&M programs have recruiting bases in Colorado including soccer and volleyball which feature a combined six players from the Centennial State.
“We have a huge recruiting base in Colorado, but it will be a lot of fun playing the final original Big 12 regular season this year,” Corbelli said. “At the same time, we’re looking at moving on to the new Big 12 or 10.”
With the Cornhuskers leaving for the Big Ten, several A&M sports might take advantage of the absence of the perennial powerhouse. In 14 years with the Big 12 conference, Nebraska has taken home 68 conference championships and three national championships including two in volleyball.
“[Nebraska] is one of the most amazing places to play,” Corbelli said. “The way they treat you there, the crowd is very knowledgeable. It’s a unique experience when you play there. I wish them the best in the Big Ten, but I don’t think we’ll skip a beat honestly. I think we have enough strength in our conference to have as high quality of matches.”
Despite the program’s success, many Aggies will miss playing one of the country’s most historic and spirited universities. Among them is Byrne who served as Nebraska’s athletic director from 1992-2002.
“I’ll miss them personally,” Byrne said. “I loved going up there and competing. I loved beating them. I have some great friends there. I have strong personal relationships with many of their administrators, and I hired many of the coaches that are still there.”
Now the Big 12, despite having 10 teams, looks toward the future without Colorado or Nebraska. However, the general consensus among A&M coaches is satisfaction with the way things turned out.
“It just was too much greed and ego at the top,” Blair said. “Everybody was trying to decide about this mega-conference. The calmer heads prevailed and the right decisions were made. Change is not always good all of the time.”