Big 12 says it tried to facilitate A&M to SEC

Published Sep. 7, 2011 11:58 p.m. ET

foxsports

Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe says his league tried to accommodate a request from the SEC to ease the way for Texas A&M to join.

Beebe said in a statement late Wednesday though that the Big 12 board's letter to the SEC last Friday waiving his conference's rights to legal claims didn't and couldn't require individual member schools to do the same thing.

Since the departure of Texas A&M results in significant changes in the Big 12 membership, Beebe says ''several institutions may be severely affected'' after counting on revenue streams from contracts approved unanimously by all Big 12 members, including Texas A&M.

He says some schools have millions of dollars of obligations based on those expected revenues.