With the 2023-24 college sports calendar now officially over with Tennessee beating Texas A&M, 6-5, Monday night for the baseball national title, Texas and Oklahoma are now officially in the Southeastern Conference.
There will be no more games involving a 14-member SEC. It's now 16.
And what a way to go into 2024-25, but by an Assassin's move in the Assassin's conference.
The first official hire, or hit, of the new SEC was much like the old SEC - a devilish one by Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, right out of "Breaking Bad." But this was more of a coup d'etat than a routine hire. And the Del Conte name sounds like something out of "The Sopranos."
Texas officially took Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle on Tuesday before the Aggies' dead bodies from their loss to fellow SEC member Tennessee the night before were even cold. Neighbor stealing from neighbor just 100 miles apart. That's the SEC. It just means more … to covet your neighbor's coach, then kill your neighbor by hiring him away.
And Del Conte's decision on Monday to announce the firing of previous baseball coach David Pierce on the very day Texas' most-hated rival, Texas A&M, was trying to win its first major national title in a men's sport since 1939 was another Soprano stroke of genius. Or stab of genius, I should say.
"Hey, Texas A&M, this is Texas. Just wanted to let you know we're in the SEC with you now. AND WE JUST TOOK YOUR COACH! Here's to having as much fun screwing each other in the SEC as we did in the old Southwest Conference. Hook 'em Horns! And Gig this, brother!"
Yes. Texas was in the SEC for one day, and the Aggies' "Gig ‘em," is already behind the "Hook ’em Horns."
Texas hadn't been in the SEC for 24 hours, and it pulled a classic SEC, Cain & Abel move - much like Florida snapping up SEC-brethren Mississippi State's football coach Dan Mullen in 2017, just three days after his regular season finale. Or Auburn grabbing SEC -brethren Ole Miss' football coach Tommy Tuberville, only a few days after the 1998 regular season ended.
"They're going to have to carry me out of here in a pine box," Tuberville had said just days before fleeing Oxford on his weekly radio show as questions about his Auburn move wouldn't cease. Soon, Ole Miss fans were all for such a coffin.
"Make it longleaf pine," one Rebel said at the time in reference to the timber of choice in Mississippi, as opposed to the Yella Wood down Auburn way.
Schlossnagle didn't go as far as Tuberville, now a quotable United States senator out of Alabama, at his press conference Monday night. But he should've stuck to talkin' baseball.
"I think it's pretty selfish of you to ask me that question, to be honest with you," Schlossnagle said wrongly to a reporter, who was almost too nice in asking the obvious and necessary Texas question with the utmost respect and professionalism.
"With respect to the difficult outcome tonight, but with the rumors circulating today about a specific job opening, what do you have to say about your future in Aggieland?"
Questions do not get much more professional.
"I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M," Schlossnagle continued, possibly not very accurately. Some have said Schlossnagle's wife Kami left him after 23 years while he was coaching at TCU before coming to A&M in 2022 - not the other way around.
"That's unfair to talk about something like that," he said. "That would be like you asking (Braden) Montgomery if he's going to sign in this draft."
Wrong again. It's a very fair question, particularly since Texas had just announced its firing of Pierce on Monday. And asking junior pitcher Braden Montgomery about the Major League Baseball draft (July 14) would be another fair and timely question since Montgomery is expected to be a top 10 or 15 pick in the first round.
"I gave up a big part of my life to come take this job," Schlossnagle went on. "And I poured every ounce of my soul in this job, and I gave this job every ounce I could possibly give it. Write that."
That last quote is very true. Criticize Schlossnagle all you want for his ridiculous comments before that since he did just take the Texas job. But do not criticize him or his credibility as a coach for taking the Texas job.
This is America, and you can take whatever job you want. That's what America's about. And Schlossnagle is not screwing Texas A&M at all.
On the contrary, he leaves Texas A&M better in baseball than it ever has been. The Gig ‘em Aggies gagged early on in every College World Series they ever went to pre-Schlossnagle through six appearances from 1951-2017. They went 0-2 or 1-2 in all six of those. Schlossnagle’s first A&M team in 2022 became the first in Aggies history to win two games in Omaha. Then his 2024 team became the first to reach the CWS final four and finished with the third best record of all time at 53-15.
That's something to build on for the new coach. And it's not like Schlossnagle just got there. He was at A&M for three seasons, which is longer than most of these players who jump into the NCAA Transfer Portal like it's a swimming pool in the desert. Some incoming freshmen wait only about three months before entering the transfer portal, aka the quitter or backup portal.
In fact, Schlossnagle is no worse or disloyal than most players who enter the portal. At least he accomplished something in his time before entering the coaching portal.
Remember, just a day or so after Alabama lost to Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal on Jan. 1, nine Crimson Tide players entered the portal, including senior starting center Seth McLaughlin and five-star redshift freshman wide receiver Shazz Preston. They would've each likely played a lot this season, as would some of the other seven. Alabama developed McLaughlin and was developing Preston. But Ohio State and Tulane, respectively, will reap those benefits. What about their credibility?
ANALYSIS: OutKick Told You Nick Saban Was Leaving
"I thought we would have a hell of a team next year," Alabama coach Nick Saban said after he announced his retirement on Jan. 10, and his players did not know that was coming. "And then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things. What assurances do I have that I'm going to play because they're thinking about transferring and how much are you going to pay me?"
Unlike so many players who enter the portal, Schlossnagle has earned his opportunity to enter the portal.
And you can't blame him. Texas in Austin is a better place to live, coach and recruit than Texas A&M is in College Station. And particularly in baseball. A&M has eight trips to Omaha and 0 national championships. Texas has gone to Omaha more than any other school with 38 from 1949-2022, and it's not even close. Miami is No. 2 with 25. The Longhorns have won six national championships from 1949-2005 and finished runner-up another six times from 1953-2009.
Roger Clemens pitched at Texas. Augie Garrido won the last national title in 2005. How can Schlossnagle not want to follow guys like that?
For a guy who was an assistant coach for eight years at Tulane in uptown New Orleans, he's going to love Austin.
Texas A&M is a great job, too, and both schools have great fan support and more money than they know what to do with for athletics. Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan is at a place that has never had great fan support and would go to Texas A&M. The Aggies should go after him, if they don't promote pitching coach Max Weiner and keep recruiting ace Nolan Cain.
But Schlossnagle is going to love Texas. Everything's bigger there, and everything is bigger at Texas than it is at A&M.
"My choice was a personal choice in my own personal life," Schlossnagle said on June 21 in Omaha about his move to A&M from TCU. But he could've been talking about his move from A&M to Texas, which he likely knew he would be doing at the time.
"As I said at that time, I wasn't taking a better job. I was taking a different job," he said. "It was an opportunity. I think everything has a shelf life. I wasn't running away from anything. I was more just running to something that I wanted to try differently."
Run to Austin, Jim. You may need to.
And maybe we'll see you on Saturday, Nov. 30, at Kyle Field in College Station for the first-ever SEC football game between Texas and Texas A&M with the first SEC baseball series between the two to follow TBA.
Watch your back.
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