Published Wednesday, March 07, 2012 12:00 AM
Courtesy of aggiesports.com
By DAVID HARRIS
david.harris@theeagle.com
david.harris@theeagle.com
Texas A&M's impending move to the Southeastern Conference turned athletics director Bill Byrne into a busy man. The decision made in September to leave the Big 12 scrapped the Aggies' existing 2012 football schedule entirely, giving Byrne less than a year to put together a new 12-game slate.
With the addition of Sam Houston State to fill the Nov. 17 date, the schedule is officially complete, and a weight has been lifted off Byrne's shoulders.
"We're relieved to get it done," he said Tuesday. "This was extremely difficult. Trying to plug games into certain dates around the SEC schedule this late in the time period is unlike anything we've ever experienced."
However, Byrne won't say he's ecstatic that A&M has six home games, including two against Football Championship Subdivision schools SHSU and South Carolina State.
"Am I pleased? No," Byrne said. "You're pleased if you have eight home games. Our goal is to have seven home games."
A&M associate athletics director John Thornton, who assists in putting together the schedules, called the process "demanding" because most schools already had schedules set for 2012.
"There are so many moving parts," Thornton said. "Everyone had existing schedules, so for the most part, the complication was they had to drop games. Even if they wanted to play you, they had to drop games which caused some drama."
For instance, a rumor surfaced in January that the Aggies and Southern Mississippi were on the verge of scheduling a nonconference game. However, that was scrapped because it was leaked. It wasn't the only instance, Byrne said.
"There were about three opponents that got way down the road but then again the drama created by dropping the existing games scrapped that," he said. "There were a lot of people who got involved in the process who really hurt us. It got out where we had contracts signed, and schools got embarrassed and dropped us."
When West Virginia dropped Florida State off of its schedule, the Seminoles began looking for an opponent. Byrne said FSU contacted A&M, but the Aggies and Seminoles couldn't work out a date.
"We just couldn't find alike dates, and we both needed home games," he said.
So A&M became desperate to find four nonconference games to fill a schedule that already included eight SEC matchups. In order to add Louisiana Tech -- an FBS schools -- to the slate, A&M had to drop McNeese State from opening week, which cost the school approximately $200,000.
"To get the FBS opponent at that date, we asked McNeese to move the date," Thornton said. "They tried every way to make it work. As it progressed, it didn't work into their schedule, and they didn't get any relief from others in moving games around and basically said they couldn't help us."
Because A&M was struggling to find opponents, schools knew they were in a power position when negotiating the price tag A&M had to pay to bring them to Kyle Field.
"It was absolutely a seller's market," Byrne said. "They jacked the price up three times what we would normally pay."
He said A&M usually pays FCS schools $350,000 per game, and teams were asking upwards of seven figures.
While A&M and Texas both had open dates Nov. 17, Byrne said he knew the Longhorns wouldn't be game for continuining their historic rivalry.
"There was no need to make a call," he said. "They made it perfectly clear they had no interest in playing us."
With the addition of Sam Houston State to fill the Nov. 17 date, the schedule is officially complete, and a weight has been lifted off Byrne's shoulders.
"We're relieved to get it done," he said Tuesday. "This was extremely difficult. Trying to plug games into certain dates around the SEC schedule this late in the time period is unlike anything we've ever experienced."
However, Byrne won't say he's ecstatic that A&M has six home games, including two against Football Championship Subdivision schools SHSU and South Carolina State.
"Am I pleased? No," Byrne said. "You're pleased if you have eight home games. Our goal is to have seven home games."
A&M associate athletics director John Thornton, who assists in putting together the schedules, called the process "demanding" because most schools already had schedules set for 2012.
"There are so many moving parts," Thornton said. "Everyone had existing schedules, so for the most part, the complication was they had to drop games. Even if they wanted to play you, they had to drop games which caused some drama."
For instance, a rumor surfaced in January that the Aggies and Southern Mississippi were on the verge of scheduling a nonconference game. However, that was scrapped because it was leaked. It wasn't the only instance, Byrne said.
"There were about three opponents that got way down the road but then again the drama created by dropping the existing games scrapped that," he said. "There were a lot of people who got involved in the process who really hurt us. It got out where we had contracts signed, and schools got embarrassed and dropped us."
When West Virginia dropped Florida State off of its schedule, the Seminoles began looking for an opponent. Byrne said FSU contacted A&M, but the Aggies and Seminoles couldn't work out a date.
"We just couldn't find alike dates, and we both needed home games," he said.
So A&M became desperate to find four nonconference games to fill a schedule that already included eight SEC matchups. In order to add Louisiana Tech -- an FBS schools -- to the slate, A&M had to drop McNeese State from opening week, which cost the school approximately $200,000.
"To get the FBS opponent at that date, we asked McNeese to move the date," Thornton said. "They tried every way to make it work. As it progressed, it didn't work into their schedule, and they didn't get any relief from others in moving games around and basically said they couldn't help us."
Because A&M was struggling to find opponents, schools knew they were in a power position when negotiating the price tag A&M had to pay to bring them to Kyle Field.
"It was absolutely a seller's market," Byrne said. "They jacked the price up three times what we would normally pay."
He said A&M usually pays FCS schools $350,000 per game, and teams were asking upwards of seven figures.
While A&M and Texas both had open dates Nov. 17, Byrne said he knew the Longhorns wouldn't be game for continuining their historic rivalry.
"There was no need to make a call," he said. "They made it perfectly clear they had no interest in playing us."
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