FORT WORTH -- The SEC's treatment of Texas A&M should serve as a warning to every Aggie that in the eyes of the conference they are no different than Arkansas or Missouri.
On Monday, Texas and Oklahoma issued a joint statement that they plan to leave the Big 12 when the media rights agreement expires after 2025. They also issued the dreaded "however" sentence that suggests they want to get out of this ASAP.
The Texas A&M Board of Regents met at 5 p.m. Monday to discuss Texas and Oklahoma's move to the SEC. This meeting was a formality, and the subject should have been removed from the docket.
While A&M leaders, such as Athletic Director Ross Bjork, now welcome the addition of UT as a fellow conference member, it's too late.
Their first reaction was their genuine feeling about this. They don't want Texas again for the logical reasons. It reeks not of pettiness, but fear.
On Tuesday morning, the SEC issued a statement from Commissioner Greg Sankey that acknowledged the league is considering adding both Texas and Oklahoma.
There was never anything Texas A&M could do to stop this, because in the eyes of the SEC, the Big Ten, the Pac-12, the ACC, Fox Sports or ESPN, the real prize in Texas is the University of Texas.
Because, much like Auburn will never be Alabama, Texas A&M will never be Texas.
Every single Aggie knows what is coming -- the return of second-class treatment by the conference and everywhere outside of College Station.
Of course, it will be fun to watch when Bevo pushes out his belly and tries to bully the room when Alabama says, "You're adorable. We're not doing that. The adults are talking. Now sit down and eat your orange slices."
The SEC is an Alabama/LSU/Georgia/Florida league first.
Texas isn't even in the conference yet and it's already received preferential treatment by a league A&M has been a member of since 2011.
There are few bigger T-shirt schools in America than the University of Texas. Whereas A&M has created a level of solidarity and community on the strength of its alums that is virtually unseen by every other big university in the country, Texas adds a legion of fans and supporters who never attended that university.
The value in that is no different than the Catholic who loves Notre Dame, buys the Fightin' Irish hats and sweatshirts, and has never once visited South Bend, Ind.
You can't put an exact value on that type of support, and only a few schools in the nation actually have it.
Texas is one. Oklahoma is another.
Hence the reason the SEC cannot wait to have them.
Texas A&M got away from Texas in 2011 for several valid reasons and had successfully cultivated an SEC niche in the state that was distinct and marketable.
The Aggies now have to deal with the Longhorns again, and if they sincerely believe they are as good as they say, the last thing they should fear is Texas.
They should welcome the return of one of the greatest college football games in America. But they don't want the game for a reason.
In the last two years, Texas A&M has been a better football program than Texas, but we know what is coming.
Both Bevo and Boomer will make Reveille's life more difficult, and that much harder to win a conference, much less a national title, in football.
When they were all paired together in the Big 12 South between 1996 and 2010, A&M went to two Big 12 title games, and the last one was 1998.
Texas or Oklahoma reached the conference title game every other time, and A&M was firmly behind both rivals.
The same has been true in the SEC West; the Aggies have yet to reach a conference title game, and the best it has finished in the division is a couple of second-place finishes.
The Aggies spent millions to be where they are and believed they were done with Texas because the SEC was watching out for them.
They weren't.
Because, in the end, the SEC's priority was Texas over Texas A&M.