Auburn president Jay Gogue wouldn't object to Tigers moving to SEC East

By Jon Solomon
The Birmingham News
9 September 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Auburn University President Jay Gogue said Thursday he would not be bothered if Auburn shifted to the SEC East as conference realignment plays out.

"If that's what it took, if you ever went to 14 (SEC members) and needed to make it work, that wouldn't be something I would be upset about," Gogue said. "I don't see any real difference. We already play Georgia, a longtime rival."

Gogue said a benefit would be Auburn renewing annual games against old rivals Florida and Tennessee. If Auburn went to the East, Auburn would pick Alabama to be an annual cross-division partner, Gogue said.

That's still speculative, of course. Because what happens next after Texas A&M's conditional acceptance into the SEC remained unclear Thursday, and it could be cloudy for a while.

The SEC approved Texas A&M as a member Tuesday if the other nine Big 12 members reaffirm they won't sue the SEC. Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri have not publicly waived their rights.

The Dallas Morning News reported Baylor has no plans to waive its legal rights as long as there is Big 12 instability. Oklahoma has publicly said it is considering changing conferences, perhaps to the Pac-12.

Tennessee Athletics Director Dave Hart said he is more convinced than ever that a "massive explosion" of conference realignment is coming.

"If it's A&M or if the Pac-12 moves, somebody is going to push the start button," said Hart, who had been running Alabama's athletics department on a daily basis. "I can't predict the timing of it. But it's potentially coming quicker than people would have imagined a couple years ago.

"Everybody's posturing right now, as you can well imagine. They better be. They've got to have ducks in a row. They've got to play out the contingencies. We have great leadership in (SEC Commissioner) Mike Slive. Everybody is extremely confident that Mike will lead."

Gogue said he doesn't believe the SEC would rush to add a 14th member if Texas A&M officially joins.

"I don't think there'd be any real push to get to 14, at least there wouldn't be from my perspective," Gogue said. "We could really easily say, 'Texas A&M, we want you to meet all the schools in the Southeast, so this year you'll play in the West, next year you play in the East.' If a 14th came around and everybody was all excited, that would be fine."

Alabama President Robert Witt declined to be interviewed for this article.

Gogue did not attend the SEC presidential meeting Tuesday in Atlanta. He arrived in Atlanta for the meeting, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday morning but got delayed. The evening start time conflicted with Gogue's schedule. Gogue said he privately told Slive he supports adding Texas A&M.

The SEC decided to vote by taking the position that Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe had released any legal claims by his members in a Sept. 2 letter. Prior to the vote, Beebe clarified that the Big 12 Conference, Inc., would not sue, but the waiver could not bind the individual institutions' governing boards to waive their rights.

Gogue said he believes Beebe's interpretation is accurate. Asked whether the SEC's lawyers understood that nuance before Beebe's clarification, Gogue replied, "I'd be surprised if they didn't understand."

SEC presidents are "sympathetic with any league," Gogue said. "You hope the Big 12 is viable. If they decide this causes huge issues for them and legal actions are involved, I don't think the Southeastern Conference should be part of that."

Hart, who went through a turbulent ACC expansion in 2003 while at Florida State, said confusion is inherent with the expansion process.

"While a lot of people have been anxious, I have not been," Hart said. "I've seen nothing in this process that has been surprising. It's a delicate process and it has to be handled the right way."

Gogue said Auburn believes the current conference alignments make sense but realizes times change.

If larger conferences emerge, "then we'll be excited and figure out how to be successful in a new alignment," Gogue said. "Your perspective is different from whatever school you're at. When I looked at our ballgame vs. Utah State (last week), we had all the competition we needed. Nearly lost the thing. Should have lost, probably. You look at that and start looking at Texas A&M -- I saw they're ranked in the top 20 -- we've got plenty of competition where we are."

Assuming the SEC expands, Hart said the most contentious issue will be scheduling. Hart said Slive has not formally discussed scheduling options, which will have to factor in equity and rivalries.

"He's right not to do that. That's ahead of the train," Hart said. "There's going to be a lot of turns and frustrations in this. Mike is a great planner and always has a direction to go."