The Southeastern Conference is considering the possibility of extending an invitation to the University of Houston to join the SEC if Texas and Texas A&M join the Pac-10 Conference, according to a report in The Houston Post.
An SEC official, who requested anonymity, said Houston "would be approached about joining (the SEC) if Texas and Texas A&M are admitted to the Pac-10," the newspaper reported Thursday.Talk around the Southwest Conference has centered on Texas and Texas A&M leaving the SWC for financial reasons. Arkansas announced it was leaving the league after 76 years for the SEC beginning next school year.
Pac-10 officials have talked informally with Texas and Texas A&M, but no expansion offers have been forwarded from the league to either school.
Mark Whitworth, associate director of the SEC, said that because the SEC presidents voted last May to allow the league commissioner to discuss expansion with interested institutions only, and not to solicit membership, Kramer would not be able to contact UH officials unless they first approach the SEC.
He said SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer hasn't revealed with which schools the SEC is talking expansion.
"If the SEC is talking to somebody, it is because that school has expressed an interest in the SEC," Whitworth said.
Rudy Davalos, UH's athletic director, declined to confirm whether contact was made with the SEC before he left Wednesday for vacation on South Padre Island. Davalos, however, said he would continue to explore the school's options.
"We feel the SEC is the kind of conference we'd like to be associated with," Davalos said. "We feel we would fit in well with the SEC schools in a number of ways. Of course, we'd like to stay in the Southwest Conference, but we have to be realistic about our future. We have to do what's best for Houston."