Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC would break the “gentlemen’s pact” between the league’s schools

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If Texas and Oklahoma join the Securities and Exchange Commission, it would break a longstanding “gentlemen’s agreement” among SEC schools that gives conference members “absolute vetoes” over adding another school from their state, according to a former Texas A&M official.

R. Bowen Loftin, who helped direct Aggies to the SEC in 2011 while serving as A&M’s president, said the much-discussed unwritten rule was a “defining conversation” during the 2010-11 expansion talks when he was involved. Loftin also served as a consultant in Missouri from 2014 to 2015 after the Tigers moved to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“There is this understanding among members – at least 10 years ago – that you don’t accept a school from the same state as a member school unless that member school agrees with it,” Loftin told ESPN.com on Thursday. . “We talked about it from time to time between ourselves, that this was the way it would be, if we had another school in Texas that wanted to get into the Securities and Exchange Commission, Texas A&M would have a veto.”

Loftin said the discussions took place when the late Mike Sliff was commissioner. Loftin, who is retired and no longer involved in discussions at A&M or Missouri, said he believes current commissioner Greg Sankey, who was Slave’s deputy before taking over as commissioner in 2015, “really has a good long-term sense for the SEC.”

A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission said the association had no comment on Loftin’s comments on Thursday.

Three states—Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee—have two SEC schools each, but these date back to when the conference was formed. In 1990, the league added Arkansas and South Carolina in states that did not have another SEC team.

Loftin said the agreement precluded discussion of expansion that includes teams like Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Miami, even as the league was targeting the ACC if the 16-team Super Conferences passed in the latest round of reorganization.

“We’ve discussed those specific possibilities,” Loftin said. “Florida was never in the conversation, for obvious reasons. It was clear that it wouldn’t be accepted unless Florida wanted to include it, and who could imagine that?”

Loftin said most of the expansion discussions have centered on schools like North Carolina, NC State, Virginia or Virginia Tech, all schools in a state without SEC members.

“I can tell you that during my time on the Securities and Exchange Commission from two different schools, that was the understanding we had,” Loftin said. “It was not written. There is no set rule that you can refer to. You can point to the regulations, and talk about having a three-quarters majority for admission to a new school, which means four schools can legally and formally prevent it from happening. But then this, there was this understanding” .

Loftin said he and members of the A&M Board of Governors specifically discussed the prospects for Texas membership during expansion talks with Slive, who was commissioner at the time. Slif passed away in 2018.

“I can mention a meeting with the commissioner and a few regents who were with me, [Texas] “He came into the conversation,” Loftin said. “Mike assured us that they got what they wanted at Texas A&M because they got the Texas market, and they got a school that is very SEC compliant.”

Ross Björk, Texas A&M’s current athletic director, said Thursday that he would be “diligent in our approach to protecting Texas A&M. We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas. There’s a reason Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 — to be self-contained.” To have our own identity.

The Aggies and Longhorns obviously haven’t had a lot of love for each other over the past 125 years or so, but especially since their breakup when I left A&M Big 12.

“They left. They’re the ones who decided not to play with us. We have to decide when we play again,” Delos Dodds, a former Texas athletic director, told the Daily Texan in 2013.

Loftin said he would be surprised if it was on the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“There will be a lot of anger on the part of the Agee community,” he said. “It is certainly ironic – and that is a very mild word – after all the rhetoric against us trying to dissuade us from [going to the SEC], and then hit us after we did that, it’s really exciting for that school to come back and say, “Oh, we want to join you now.”

He found the Texan’s interest to be a change, especially after discussing the prospects for reorganization with his Austin counterpart, Texas President Bill Powers, who died in 2019.

“They have a great opinion of themselves – which isn’t surprising – but it’s not always justified,” Loftin said. “And that prompts a lot to think there.” “Bill Powers was very clear to me that they felt closer to the schools in Big Ten and on the West Coast. He was very dismissive of the SEC, because he felt academically, it was an inferior convention. It doesn’t exist anymore., I understand that. But The cultural fit for A&M and SEC is very good. The fit for Texas is not. That’s plain and simple.”

Missouri coach Eli Drenkewitz, a relative newcomer to the league drama in his second year as a Tigers coach, joked Thursday at an information day for the Producers’ Supreme Committee about the rumored interest in Texas and Oklahoma.

“We are the best league in college football and everyone wants to play there, and now you have two popular brands that want to join as well,” he said. “It’s an exclusive club and not everyone gets into it, so good luck. Especially if A&M has anything to do with it.”

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