APNewsBreak: Baylor raised issues over A&M to SEC

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — The Associated Press has obtained an email indicating that it was Baylor that raised the specter of legal action to stop Texas A&M from leaving the Big 12.

The email was sent late Tuesday by Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe to Mike Slive, his counterpart at the SEC.

It says the Southeastern Conference will need to ask each Big 12 school to waive their legal rights to clear the way for Texas A&M to join the SEC. Beebe says: “I recognize that this issue has been raised due to Baylor University’s indication that its governing board has not waived the university’s rights” to take legal action.

Beebe had sent a letter to Slive on Sept. 2 saying that the Big 12 “and its members” would not go to court to sue the SEC or its 12 member schools over Texas A&M as long as the deal was secured by Thursday afternoon.

Beebe then sent Tuesday night’s email around the time that SEC presidents and chancellors were voting on an application from Texas A&M to join by next summer. Beebe told Slive, “I regret any confusion on this issue.”

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin told the AP in an interview that Tuesday’s email was “really a violation of trust” on the part of Beebe. The Big 12 did not immediately return a message left seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.