Aggies hope SEC move translates to more success on national stage

A tradition at Texas A&M football games is the wearing of the jersey No. 12, which represents “The 12th Man.” A specially selected walk-on dons the No. 12 jersey and takes part on special teams as part of the 12th man tradition.

By Susan Storey

Special to The Tuscaloosa News

Published: Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.

The TV spots began airing in 17 of the top Southeastern Conference markets during football broadcasts last October, approximately a month after the school’s official announcement. Designed to introduce tradition-steeped Texas A&M University to the member institutions and fans of its future conference, the commercial also speaks of a bold new attitude as the 136-year-old institution gets ready to embark on its next chapter.

“Our intent with the ‘It’s Time’ campaign is to illustrate that Texas A&M has arrived on the national stage,” explained Jason Cook, vice president of marketing and communications for the university, “not only in the top athletic league in the country, but also as one of the nation’s top universities.”

Three years into the SEC’s groundbreaking 15-year, $2.25 billion contract with ESPN — which coincides with a 15-year, $825 million deal with CBS — Texas A&M leaders say it’s time to shine a brighter spotlight on the university’s numerous distinctions, including:

Since 2009, Texas A&M athletic programs have claimed eight national championships, including titles in women’s basketball (2011), men’s golf (2009) and men’s and women’s track and field (2009, 2010, 2011).

The Aggie athletic program placed in the top 10 of the NACDA Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup (which awards points based on order of finish in various NCAA-sponsored championships) during both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years, making it the top overall program in the Big 12 the last two years.

Texas A&M won nine conference championships during the 2010-2011 season and was one of only two universities nationwide to qualify every sports team, men’s and women’s, for postseason competition.

Texas’ first public university recently vaulted into the nation’s top 20 public universities — tied for 19th — in the 2012 rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

A&M’s enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 students, ranking it as the sixth largest university in the United States. Upon its entry into the conference, the school will replace Florida as the SEC’s largest member institution.

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, the catalyst for the move to the SEC, said numerous other Aggie achievements have gone unnoticed in the past, but no more.

“The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve,” Loftin said to the gathering of supporters in attendance at the Sept. 26 press conference to announce the school’s decision to join the SEC, while deeming it a “100-year decision for Texas A&M.”

“Now, we have a venue. The SEC will be our national stage every day, every month, every year, giving extra value to our former students. The brand of Texas A&M is made by you, and it will be seen every day.”

Familiar ties

For Jason and Leann Cook, Texas A&M’s impeding move from the Big 12 to the SEC is a “homecoming.” The transition to one of the nation’s premier collegiate conferences also can be deemed a labor of love for the husband and wife.

After A&M nearly left the Big 12 in 2010, Loftin turned to Jason, a Mississippi State graduate whose current job title also includes chief communications officer for The Texas A&M University System, and Leann, a Texas A&M alumna and former assistant commissioner for the SEC, for valuable insight into the league.

While delving into topics such as the history, culture, marketing and branding of the league during those consultation sessions that resumed in earnest last summer, the Cooks’ personal relationships with key SEC staff members also led to more effective communication between Texas A&M leaders and the school’s prospective conference. Jason, who once was a member of Mississippi State’s athletic media relations staff, proudly served as the A&M spokesman throughout its dramatic shift from the Big 12 to the SEC.

“We were so aware of the things the SEC does right,” said Leann, who spent nine years at the conference. “And the SEC members really do support each other as a family.

“A&M is going to be such a great long-term fit.”

The jump from the Big 12 to the SEC also should be a smooth transition for at least a couple of members of the Aggie athletic department, who have already proven they know how to compete — and excel — in the SEC.

Gary Blair, who guided the Aggies’ women’s basketball program to its first national title in 2011, is one of only three all-time NCAA Division I women’s basketball coaches to lead two different teams to the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Prior to becoming Texas A&M’s women’s basketball coach with the most wins, Blair also made history at Arkansas by taking his unranked 1997-1998 team to the Final Four.

Pat Henry became the first coach to lead a school to three consecutive men’s and women’s NCAA Championships when the Texas A&M track and field programs accomplished the feat last season. During his 17-year tenure at LSU, Henry established the school as the pre-eminent track and field program in the country by winning 27 NCAA championships, with numerous team titles coming on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Texas A&M has played other roles in the history of the SEC, most notably as one of the coaching stops for legendary Alabama football coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant. During his tenure in College Station, Texas, Bryant famously put the “Junction Boys” through the paces during a grueling, 10-day training camp that’s been chronicled in a book and a movie of the same name. He also coached his first, and only, Heisman Trophy winner, Aggie halfback John David Crow, who later would serve as an assistant on Bryant’s staff at Alabama.

As a member of the SEC, Texas A&M will extend long-standing football rivalries with Arkansas and LSU. After the first meeting in College Station in 1899, the Aggies have matched up against LSU more than any other opponent they haven’t shared a conference with.

“Throughout the years, there’s just been so many ties and similarities between Texas A&M and the SEC,” Jason Cook said. “We’re looking forward to rekindling those relationships.”

New era, century-old traditions

Over 700 season tickets were sold for the Aggie football program’s 2012 campaign within a two-hour window after the line item, “Authorization for the President to Take All Actions Relating to Texas A&M University’s Athletic Conference Alignment,” was posted by the school’s board of regents last August. Kyle Field eventually was sold out completely — for the first time in school history — in anticipation of A&M’s inaugural season as a member of the SEC.

First-year Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin will guide the Aggies onto the field, and into a new era of intercollegiate competition, for the school’s history-making conference matchup at home against Florida on Sept. 8. Sumlin, a former A&M assistant, whom Aggies Athletic Director Bill Byrne deemed “the right person to lead our football program into the Southeastern Conference,” takes the helm in College Station after last season’s 7-6 campaign under Mike Sherman.

“Having coached there before, I understand the culture and embrace the commitment by the 12th Man regarding Aggie football,” Sumlin said during the December press conference to announce his hiring, following a successful four-year stint as head coach at Houston. “Aggieland is a special place, and I look forward to working with the young men in the football program and recruiting the type of players we need to be successful in the SEC.”

A&M will join the SEC while embracing the long-standing traditions that have helped set it apart from other institutions, but ones which should mesh nicely in the tradition-rich confines of the 80-year-old conference.

Visitors to Kyle Field will experience the game-day pageantry of a university initially established as a military institution. The Corps of Cadets, the largest uniformed body of students outside the service academies, is considered the heartbeat of Texas A&M as well as the Keepers of the Spirit of Aggieland. During a pregame ritual similar to Auburn’s “Tiger Walk” or Ole Miss’ “Walk of Champions,” Aggie alumni and fans line the route to the stadium as the Corps proudly marches to Kyle Field.

Texas A&M also is home to the 12th Man, which is embodied in the entire student body who proudly stand, ready for service, throughout the entire football game. The original 12th man, former student E. King Gill, suited up after being called down from the stands during a game in 1922, ready to go in just in case he was needed for an Aggie team depleted by injuries.

This season, SEC fans also will become familiar with Reveille, a full-blooded Collie that serves as the school’s official mascot and is considered the highest-ranking member of the Corps of Cadets, as well as the terms “Gig ‘em,” symbolized in the form of a thumbs-up gesture, and “Howdy,” the official greeting of Texas A&M.

And then there are the yell leaders, five male students elected by the student body to lead Aggie fans in “yells” during athletic and other school events. Utilizing hand signals instead of gymnastics maneuvers, the yell leaders perpetuate the spirit of the 12th Man.

“I know my friends would have preferred to see a pretty cheerleader on the sidelines instead of me,” joked Jeff Bailey, who served as an Aggie yell leader from 1998-2000. “But for me it was a great honor and privilege to be able to represent the university.”

“As an alumni, I’m excited about the new path that Texas A&M is about to take. We may have a big road ahead of us, but there’s not one Aggie I know who is not excited about joining the SEC family.”

Tradition

“Howdy” is the universal Aggie greeting, and fans typically end conversations with a thumbs-up and “Gig ’em.” The university held a bonfire before the Texas game until 12 people were killed and 27 injured in 1999 when the wood stack collapsed. Since 2002, a nonsanctioned bonfire has been held. A specially selected football walk-on dons the No. 12 and takes part on special teams as part of the 12th man tradition. Fans sway in the stands at the end of the “Aggie War Hymn” as they bid “goodbye to Texas University.”

Visiting College Station

Texas A&M’s football team will come to Tuscaloosa this November, but the Tide will return the favor in odds years starting in 2013. The Northgate district is the heart of College Station’s nightlife, and neighboring Bryan offers sevreal attractions:

Chicken Oil Co.: Opened in Bryan in 1977 as a gas station and burger shop. The gas in gone, but the burgers are going strong. Try the signature “Death Burger” if you like ’em spicy.

George Bush Presidential Library: If you’ve had your fill of eat and drink, check out George H.W. Bush’s 90-acre library and museum on A&M’s west campus, which contains more than 44 million pages of personal papers and official documents.

The Dixen Chicken: “College Station’s most famous watering hole since 1974” claims to serve the most beer per square foot in the U.S. Home to a live snake and a weekly domino tournament, the bar is the traditional spot for students to dunk their newly received class rings in a beer they then chug.