The newest member of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference is Texas A&M University. The last expansion to the SEC was in 1991 with the University of South Carolina and the University of Arkansas. The Presidents and Chancellors of the Southeastern Conference want Texas A&M to heighten the already high quality of the conference. Out of the twenty sports sponsored by the SEC, the Texas A&M Aggies will compete in nineteen in 2012-2013 school year.

Everything is bigger in TEXAS! What are some things that make Texas A&M so grand? Texas A&M is one of the largest Universities in the United States, sixth to be exact. In the Fall of 2011, the University's enrollment soared to over 50,000 students for the very first time. It is located in College Station, Texas and the campus covers over 5,500 acres, which also makes it one of the largest campuses in the United States. On campus is the George Bush Presidential Library! The school has nearly 800 school organizations that are officially recognized! A whopping one fifth of the student body lives on campus!! That's a lot of people! In all the counties in Texas, through research and extension campuses and programs, Texas A&M University has students in all of them! The school newspaper, The Battalion has been ranked fifth best in the nation! The yearbook, Aggieland is also one of the largest in the nation when referring to number of pages and number of copies that are sold! Through ten colleges and eighteen institutes of research, Texas A&M has 150 areas of study to earn degrees in. 320,000 degrees have been awarded through the years to undergrads and over 70,000 have been awarded to graduate and professional students. Last but not least, through their Corps of Cadets program, the university provides more officers to the United States Armed Forces than any other school. If you can't go big, go home, right??!!?

Some basic knowledge about Texas A&M is that is was established in 1871. It has a system wide endowment of over seven billion dollars! Currently the President of Texas A&M is Dr. R. Bowen Loftin and he has a staff of 2,700 members. With the current student enrollment over 50,000, the breakdown is as follows: nearly 40,000 undergraduates, nearly 5,600 postgraduates, and close to 4,000 Doctoral students. Until 1963, Texas A&M University was known as The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. The official school colors are maroon and white and the nickname for the athletic teams is the Aggies. The current mascot is Reveille VIII which is a Rough Collie. Before being a part of the SEC, the Aggies were members of the Big 12.

As mentioned before, there are over 800 student organizations on campus. The more the merrier and these organizations leave little room for excuses not to be involved at Texas A&M. At least 74% of enrolled students are involved in one, in the very least, of the student organizations. The oldest organization or group is the Singing Cadets. It was founded in 1893 and is referred to as the "Voice of Aggieland." The Singing Cadets is an choral group comprised of all males, unaffiliated with the Corps of Cadets and usually has around seventy members. The Singing Cadets travel around the United States putting on shows as well as internationally to places like South Africa! Another old organization is the Texas A&M Hillel. It is confirmed as being the oldest Hillel foundation in the entire United States. It was originally founded in 1920 as part of The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. A Hillel Foundation is a Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Other student organizations that got their start here are The Big Event and CARPOOL. The Big Event is a yearly service project that is the largest of its kind in America. Students serve their community by helping local residents. CARPOOL is a student run operation of giving free safe rides home to those who cannot do so for themselves. To date the CARPOOL organization has given almost 200,000 free rides home and saved many lives by keeping drunk drivers off the road! CARPOOL leaders assist other universities and schools in the formation of such a group on their campuses as well!

For most people, when they think of Texas, they think of cowboys, oil, and big, curly, blonde hair, right? Well, you ask sports fans in Texas and they will tell you that all they think about is the heated rivalry between Texas A&M and the University of Texas. The battle between the two schools is called the Lone Star Showdown... can't you just see in your head the image of an Aggie and Longhorn standing back to back, taking ten paces away from each other, in the middle of an old western town??!? The game between the two schools has only been called The Lone Star Showdown since 2004, but they have been playing one another since 1894! The other rivals are Texas Tech, Baylor University and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Home gameday's have been played at Kyle Field since 1904 and currently the stadium can hold just over 83,000 fans!

The fans at football games are called 12th Man. This name came about in the 1920's after a game in which the Texas A&M Aggies played Centre College. There were so many injuries that the coach was scared that he would not have enough players to finish! So, the coach called into the stands for a specific reserve football player to come down and get ready to play. The player came down but never actually went into the game. The 12th Man stands for the fans being there to support the eleven players on the field, ready to step in to complete the game if necessary. Out of respect for the football team, the fans also do not sit during the games. Every year, there is one walk on player that will wear the number twelve jersey to represent the 12th Man and he also gets to participate in kick-off. As a part of the 12th Man activities, students elect five "Yell Leaders" for each football season. These Yell Leaders congregate students at Kyle Field at midnight before home games for the "Midnight Yell" to practice cheers for the following day. For away games, they meet at other locations to get ready! At the end of their practice, the lights are shut out and everyone is supposed to kiss the date that they brought with them. This kissing is known as "mugging down" and students are expected to do it every time the Aggies score! Will you be attending a Midnight Yell this coming up football season?? Well, if you are, make sure you impress your date with a super cute outfit from SidelineSweetie.com! You will be looking so cute it will be hard for him to wait until the lights go out to "mug down!!"