At some point tonight, the SEC presidents will meet and unanimously approve extending an invitation to Texas A&M to become the conference's 13th member. According to Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated:
By Tuesday night, the SEC should know whether it has the required nine presidential votes to extend an invitation to Texas A&M, which sent a conditional withdrawal letter to the Big 12 last week. If the Aggies get the invitation, they will accept and announce as early as Wednesday their intention to join the SEC. Then, things could get wild.
Then, Dennis Dodds with CBS dropped this little bombshell:
Latest on SEC No. 14 West Virginia/Missouri.
The biggest lingering question around SEC expansion has been which school will be the 14th member and balance out the conference. If Dodds is right, it will be Missouri or West Virginia. Losing West Virginia would be a tremendous blow to the football side of the Big East, even if the conference is able to then turn around and land the surviving member of the old Big XII North (Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State).
If A&M is approved and accepts the SEC's offer (and it will), then the next step in the game of realignment dominoes is what happens to the Big XII. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State appear dead set on heading to an expanded PAC 12 Conference, with or without Texas (and Texas Tech). As mentioned above, in that scenario the Big East will look to swoop in and nab whatever pieces of the Big XII it can get its hands on. The New York Post reported yesterday that the Big East has already reached out to those schools in hopes of providing a "soft landing" should the Big East collapse.
The wheel is about to spin again my friends. Buckle up.