Would the SEC take Baylor to land A&M?

By WoadBlue
SouthernPigskin.com

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Those who know southwestern sports know about the Battle of the Brazos between A&M and Baylor, as well as Baylor’s rivalry with Arkansas.

The Southern Pigskin staff has correctly noted that nothing definite has even been discussed officially by either the SEC or Texas A&M: /SEC/view/just-not-true

The conclusion is this: “While the two sides still could come to an agreement, there are obvious problems—most notably the Texas legislature pressuring the Aggies to preserve longstanding rivalries with Texas and Texas Tech.”

There is another issue that the southeastern based Southern Pigskin staff does not identify, and it wields far more political and cultural power in Texas than does Texas Tech. That power is the Southern Baptist Convention and its university, Baylor.

More than in any state, even Alabama or Arkansas or Mississippi, the Southern Baptist Convention has become the de facto head of all Texan culturally, morally, and politically conservative Protestant movements and groups. It is so important not merely to Texas but to the entire South and thus the nation as a Christian conservative force that Raymond Cardinal Burke, former Archbishop of Saint Louis and so powerful in the Vatican that he could become the first American Pope, has spoken to its leaders in Houston, encouraging them to see their essential role in standing against the tides of moral decay, which makes them allies of the Vatican and opponents of Liberal Protestantism and the universalist secularism Liberal Protestantism promotes.

Because of that Baptist power in Texas, Baylor has reach and clout far beyond anything its size and sports history suggest could be remotely possible. In effect, slighting Baylor can mean a huge backlash for any politician who needs conservative votes to win. For example, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Methodist and A&M alumnus, may now be the favorite to claim the conservative wing of the Republican Party and thus the nomination for President. And Perry has made many displays of his awareness of the power of Baylor and especially the Texas SBC. That means that in this expansion frenzy, various people with formidable power in Lone Star politics are already pulling strings to secure Baylor’s future as a member of a major conference, if only because they do not want to feel the backlash if they fail to act and Baylor gets demoted into a small time conference.

Baylor folks are not stupid. They know that the University of Texas, which is the epicenter of Liberalism in Texas, would have done the Pac’s bidding and left their school in the dust without so much as a feigned sigh of loss. They know also that because Baylor is a small private school, its sports future is secure only if it remains tied to A&M.

Thus you can bet your last thin dime that Baylor folks, and in this case that group features people who are not Baylor Bears’ fans but are part of the Texas SBC-led conservative Protestant wing of Texas cultural politics, are working hard at making certain that the only way A&M can join the SEC is with Baylor.

Would the SEC take Baylor to land A&M? It would be stupid not to.

All fans of college football with any knowledge grasp what value A&M would bring to the SEC. Those who know southwestern sports know about the Battle of the Brazos between A&M and Baylor, as well as Baylor’s rivalry with Arkansas. Those who know Texas, Southern, or conservative politics know the central importance of Southern Baptists not merely in Texas but across the entire South. A Baptist college, which would never be tolerated in the self-proclaimed religiously tolerant Pac or Big Ten, would fit culturally into the SEC the way Texas Country Music fits into the SEC.

Yes, adding two schools from its west would force the SEC to give up divisions based on an east/west split. But that can work to the SEC’s advantage. Adding Baylor would mean 1 private school per division, and it would double the Texas access for current SEC members.

If Baylor were to be added with A&M, divisions might look like the following, in which annual cross-divisional rivals are paired:

Baylor- Vanderbilt
A&M – Florida
Arkansas – Mississippi State
LSU – Ole Miss
Alabama – Tennessee
Auburn – Georgia
Kentucky – South Carolina