Some Texas lawmakers concerned about UT leaving Big 12 for SEC

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While the college track and field world is upset over the possibility of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 conference, a group of Texan lawmakers with ties to other universities in the state has mobilized.

Four prominent lawmakers – one each with ties to Baylor University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, and Texas A&M University – met with Governor Greg Abbott’s staff on Thursday, the day after it became known that UT and OU had broken up had approached the Southeastern Conference, according to a source briefed at the meeting and an Abbott spokesman. Abbott is a UT alumnus and downright Longhorn fan.

The four lawmakers were Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, who chaired the influential House Appropriations Committee and attended Texas A&M; Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who holds a law degree and an MBA from Texas Tech and chairs the powerful House Calendars Committee; Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, Chairman of the Judiciary and Civil Law Committee of the House of Representatives and President of the Baylor Student Union; and Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Chair of the Health and Welfare Committee and former TCU athlete. Kolkhorst declined to comment and the other three lawmakers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday evening.

Leach and Burrows have already voiced concerns about a possible move on social media, with Leach saying on Twitter that he is “working on legislation that requires legal approval for UT to lock down the BIG XII”.

“This is about a lot more than college sports,” Leach wrote. “The impact of UT’s decision on communities and businesses across Texas would be real, significant, and potentially devastating. The Texan legislature is obliged to cooperate on behalf of the Texans affected. “

But legislature influence could be limited if the reorientation of the conference actually turns into a political struggle. The Texas Legislature is in the middle of a special session, but House Democrats have fled the state to break the quorum on a new vote restricting law that is preventing the House from passing laws. Even if the House of Representatives had the numbers to pass legislation now, it can only pass bills that Abbott puts on the agenda. The next regular session of the legislature will not take place until 2023.

The Houston Chronicle first reported Wednesday that the OU and UT had reached out to the SEC. If a move were to happen, it would be hugely disruptive to TCU, Texas Tech, and Baylor, who are all members of the Big 12. UT and OU are by far the most visible and lucrative college track and field programs in the Big 12, and they help increase TV revenue and interest of all the teams involved in the conference, especially in football. Should the two schools drop out, the viability of the Big 12, which distributed more than $ 34 million to each of its member schools this year, would be in doubt. And Baylor, TCU, and Tech with their smaller fan bases may then have to look for new conferences.

Texas A&M, which left the Big 12 for the SEC nine years ago, is also against the move.

“There’s a reason A&M left the Big 12: the way the Big 12 works and governance,” sporting director Ross Bjork told the Chronicle on Wednesday. “A&M is a model university, and with the size and size of our location, we should have our own independent identity in our own conference.”

Decisions about hosting the conference ultimately lie with the presidents and councilors of the schools, who are appointed by the governor. But the issue inevitably gets political in Texas, considering the amount of money at stake and how attending a major athletics conference helps increase a school’s visibility. Before the 1990s, UT, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Rice University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Houston were all in the same conference, the Southwestern Conference. When Texas A&M and UT began exploring the exit, they were put under heavy pressure by powerful elected officials in Texas to take Tech and Baylor with them. At the time, Governor Ann Richards was a Baylor alumnus, and Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock had degrees from Texas Tech and Baylor.

“It is common knowledge that Baylor made it into the Big 12 because of Ann Richards and Bob Bullock,” Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, told the Texas Tribune in 2016.

Rice, SMU, UH, and TCU were left with devastating results for their athletics departments, though TCU moved to the Big 12 years later after a string of football hits.

For the past decade, Texas A&M faced heavy political pressure when it left the Big 12 and joined the SEC, but it ultimately prevailed. Then Governor Rick Perry was an A&M graduate.

Cassandra Pollock contributed to this report.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Baylor University, Rice University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, and the University of Houston were financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization, which is financed in part by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the journalism of the Tribune. You can find a full list of them here.

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