Published Tuesday, January 24, 2012 12:08 AM

Texas A&M moves forward with Big 12 exit plan

By MATTHEW WATKINS
matthew.watkins@theeagle.com

Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin said Monday that progress has been made in negotiating a fee for the Aggies' withdrawal from the Big 12 Conference and he hopes to have an agreement "fairly soon."

He made the statement after the A&M System Board of Regents unanimously voted to give Loftin power to execute a settlement once such an agreement has been made. The regents met in a special telephonic meeting and approved the authorization after about 30 minutes of conversation behind closed doors.

A&M officials declined to speculate on when a deal will be finalized, but said the board's action Monday is a sign that the two sides are moving forward.

"We are engaging with [the Big 12] fairly regularly and it is my hope that we will have a very rapid conclusion on this, but I can't predict when that will happen or what the outcome will be," Loftin said.

Calls from The Eagle to the Big 12 headquarters Monday afternoon were not returned.

The Aggies are leaving the Big 12 at the end of the school year to join the Southeastern Conference. Former Big 12 companion Missouri is also leaving, and the Tigers are negotiating their own exit fee.

The Big 12 bylaws call for exit penalties that vary depending on how much notice the departing school gives.

A&M sent notification on the last day of August that it planned to leave the Big 12. The school plans to officially join the SEC in July, meaning it will fail to live up to the Big 12's two-year notice requirement.

Under the Big 12 bylaws, an exiting school that gives less than a year notice but more than six months is expected to relinquish 90 percent of its final two years in conference payout, which has been estimated at around $29 million.

But the wording of the bylaws and the details of A&M's exit are murky, A&M officials have said.

"The bylaws are subject to different interpretation here, and that has to play into any conversations that you have between the Big 12 and us," Loftin said.

Recent history has shown that those fees can be negotiated. Nebraska paid $9.25 million when it withdrew last year, even though initial estimates had the Cornhuskers paying $19 million. Colorado, which also left last year, paid $6.86 million, compared to an initial estimate of $14.5 million.

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