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Sec 2012 Football Schedule

December 29, 2011 by · Comments Off on Sec 2012 Football Schedule 

Sec 2012 Football ScheduleSec 2012 Football Schedule, Texas A&M’s first football game in the Southeastern Conference will be a big one. The Aggies will host the Florida Gators on Sept. 8, according to a schedule released Wednesday.

The 2012 schedule for the SEC’s 14 teams had been delayed for months as the conference grappled with how to handle the addition of A&M and Missouri this fall. Fans on Twitter, message boards and online comment sections have been speculating for weeks about who the Aggies will play.

On Wednesday, they learned that A&M will be welcomed with one of the most difficult schedules in the league. They play the four teams that will have combined to win the last six BCS Championships — LSU, Alabama, Florida and Auburn — plus Arkansas, which is currently ranked seventh in the AP Top 25.

In announcing the schedule, the Aggies’ new head coach Kevin Sumlin welcomed the challenge.

“I am very excited about playing in the best division and in the best conference in the country,” Sumlin said.

Fans seem excited, too. Season ticket sales for 2011 skyrocketed as talk of A&M moving to the SEC heated up this summer. The university is considering expanding Kyle Field to accommodate SEC crowds.

Applications for 2012 season tickets will be available in January. Single-game tickets, if there are any left, will go on sale later.

SEC officials said the schedules will change in 2013. Given that many teams already had nonconference games scheduled, the conference had a difficult time coming up with a plan to accommodate the two new teams.

The system for the 2013 schedule hasn’t yet been determined and will not be based on the 2012 one, the conference said. The conference’s athletic directors will meet in the spring to arrange the 2013 slate.

“The SEC transition team and our athletic directors did a great job with significant logistical challenges in a short time frame in developing the 2012 football conference schedule,” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “The ability to come together for the conference is what makes the SEC so strong and that was evident yet again in this process.”

A few notes on the Aggies’ 2012 schedule:

* The location for the game against Arkansas was not announced. The Aggies signed a deal with the Razorbacks in 2008 to play 10 games in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. But, now that A&M is in the SEC, the schools are considering alternating the game between the two teams’ home fields each year.

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said this month that A&M wants to move the game, but that he wants to keep it in Arlington.

Both schools expected to make about $5 million each from the annual game. In 2009, A&M earned $4.2 million from the game. That dropped to $2.9 million in 2010.

A&M is the designated home team for 2012, meaning the game would be in College Station if it’s not in Arlington.

* A&M’s nonconference schedule is also unclear. The Aggies will open the season at home against McNeese State on Sept. 1 and travel to Dallas to play SMU on Sept. 15. They have three other open dates on their schedule — Sept. 22, Oct. 13, and Nov. 17 — and expect to fill two of them.

* A&M will finish its season with a home game against former Big 12 foe Missouri on Nov. 24. That spot on the schedule, Thanksgiving weekend, has traditionally been saved for rival Texas. The Longhorns have declined to keep the rivalry alive.

The game will mark the third straight season that A&M hosts Missouri. The two teams played at Kyle Field in 2009 as part of the regular Big 12 rotation. When the Big 12 lost two teams for the 2010 season, the schedule was shaken up so that Missouri came to Aggieland again.

* The Aggies will play two games in Mississippi and two games in Alabama. They play Ole Miss on Oct. 6, Auburn on Oct. 27, Mississippi State on Nov. 3 and Alabama on Nov. 10.

* LSU will visit Kyle Field for the first time since 1995. The Aggies and the Tigers have played 50 times, but their rivalry has been dormant in recent years, except for a 2011 meeting in the Cotton Bowl.

Texas A&M 2012 football schedule:

* Sept. 1 — McNeese State — College Station

* Sept. 8 — Florida — College Station

* Sept. 15 — SMU — Dallas

* Sept. 22 — Either open date or non-conference opponent

* Sept. 29 — Arkansas — Location to be announced

* Oct 6 — Ole Miss — Oxford, Miss.

* Oct 13 — Either open date or non-conference opponent

* Oct 20 — LSU — College Station

* Oct 27 — Auburn — Auburn, Ala.

* Nov. 3 — Mississippi State — Starkville, Miss.

* Nov. 10 — Alabama — Tuscaloosa, Ala.

* Nov. 17 — Either open date or non-conference opponent

* Nov. 24 — Missouri — College Station

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