ESPN College Football

Links time!

• Former Texas A&M coaches say Bill Byrne's shortcomings in football overshadowed his other successes as athletic director.
• LSU coach Les Miles said the missing 2011 national championship banner will provide motivation for the Tigers this year.
• LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis is eying more success with the Tigers.
• Highly touted quarterback Connor Mitch chooses South Carolina over LSU.
• Some notable Georgia football players are graduating Friday.
• Georgia coach Mark Richt talks safety in college football.
• Alabama coach Nick Saban talks success, Mal Moore and much more during his appearance in Birmingham.
• Auburn coach Gene Chizik is happy with "real competition" on the Tigers' lines.
• Dan Mullen is getting ready for Mississippi State's "Our State" tour.
• Former Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Arkansas State will visit Auburn in 2013.
• Florida's defense is bulking up in 2012.

Bill Byrne says he was tired.

So after nearly 10 years as Texas A&M's athletic director, he announced his retirement at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

"It was time," Byrne said.

Byrne, 66, said his fatigue came from taking "a lot of pounding" in his job as Texas A&M's AD, but some will say he was pushed out.

Regardless, Byrne is stepping away less than two months before A&M officially moves to the SEC. While Byrne stacks hours of fishing and watching his grandsons play sports onto more hours of fishing, A&M official will be scrambling to find a replacement suited for helping the Aggies make the move to their new, more hostile home.

The move wasn't something Byrne, who will serve as a special adviser to A&M President R. Bowen Loftin until Aug. 31, was very keen on at first, but when it came down to picking the SEC or the Big 12, the Aggies went with the SEC and Byrne said all the right things.

"Those are decisions that are made above my pay grade," Byrne said when asked at his press conference if his voice was heard loud enough during SEC talks. "My dad was a soldier, my mom was an army nurse, you're taught to salute and carry on."

It appears associate athletic director John Thornton will serve as interim AD while the real search begins, but the person picked to succeed Byrne will have a tough act to follow.

Under Byrne's watch, A&M athletics won 17 national championships and 46 Big 12 championships, creating what he believed was a more confident, winning attitude in Aggieland.

"If you listened to what has happened over the last 10 years, our students, our coaches and all of you expect to win when the Aggies take the field," he said.

"That's been one of the best things that we've done here is change the culture. Texas A&M, whenever we take the field, your opponent better take their angles because we will be ready."

His successor will also have to stand much taller and do more in an area where Byrne never seemed to get it right: football. The sport Byrne knows the best, the one that brings in the most money and helps fund athletics just never got to where Byrne -- or most of Aggieland -- wanted it to.

During his tenure, the football team went through two head coaches -- Dennis Franchione and Mike Sherman -- comprising a 58-54 record. The Aggies won just one bowl game and finished a season ranked only once.

The 2011 season, in which A&M entered the season ranked No. 8, was "an absolute crusher" for Byrne after the Aggies went 7-6 and had a losing record in conference play for the second time in three years.

A&M's football program is walking into a meat grinder. Southern hospitality quickly dies on SEC fields and when football suffers.

Byrne put a lot of energy in non-revenue sports, but expect his successor to pay even more attention to the pig skin. Byrne raised funds to build McFerrin Athletic Center and Cox-McFerrin Basketball Center and to renovate Olsen Field, now the renovation of Kyle Field is in order. Expect that to be top priority moving forward and expect more resources to be put into the football program.

Byrne helped build some very strong parts to Texas A&M's athletic department, but it's time for the next person to go a step further.

The next person will be responsible for competing in a conference that prides itself on heavy support and lavish facilities. The next person will have to feed off of Byrne's past successes to make sure this school keeps up in the SEC in all sports. Being timid isn't an option in the land where some of the best ADs in the country reside.

It won't be about keeping up with Texas and Oklahoma. It'll be about keeping up with just about everyone.

Texas A&M is an attractive job for a good candidate and Byrne knows that. He just hopes that what he started is just the beginning for A&M.

"I expect us to continue to build champions at Texas A&M," he said.

Hitting the SEC links on a Tuesday:

• Robert Cessna writes that Bill Byrne's successor as athletic director at Texas A&M has some big shoes to fill.
• Tennessee coach Derek Dooley expects to see an upgrade in the classroom.
• Auburn offensive lineman Thomas O'Reilly plans to transfer to Georgia Tech.
• After spring, injured Auburn players look to rejoin the starting lineup.
• Florida's defensive tackle commit Caleb Brantley is reconsidering his decision.
• Florida coach Will Muschamp is receiving warm welcomes at Gator booster clubs despite last year's season.
• Brad Locke of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal takes a look at Mississippi State's linebackers now that spring practice is over.
• Is Missouri getting a ready-made defensive tackle?

Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne will announce his retirement Tuesday at a news conference in College Station, Texas, a source told The Associated Press.

Byrne, 66, was hired in December of 2002 and helped guide the Aggies to the SEC from the Big 12. Byrne's contract is up on Aug. 31, 2013, but Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said last month that Byrne's future at the school would be discussed between the two of them.

For the most part, Aggies sports flourished while Byrne was the school's AD. During his tenure, Texas A&M sports won 17 national championships and 46 Big 12 championships.

However, Texas A&M's football program hasn't been as successful. It went 58-54, won just one bowl game and finished only one season ranked. Now, it's taking new coach Kevin Sumlin, who came from Houston, to the SEC.

The move to the SEC, effective July 1, brings what Byrne believed would be a much more stable situation for Texas A&M, but it didn't come without controversy. The move has put a once-great rivalry with Texas on hold for the foreseeable future and it appeared to set in motion all the recent expansion movement taking over college football.

There certainly were mixed feelings about Byrne's tenure at Texas A&M, but his departure right before the move to the SEC will no doubt put a lot of pressure on his successor and Loftin.

Check back to the blog later to read more about Byrne's departure and what's next for Texas A&M.

Checking out the SEC with some links.

• The White House experience never gets old for Nick Saban and his Alabama players.
• Arkansas coaches are still hard at work on the recruiting trail.
• Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun makes a draft list of Florida's top 10 players coming out of spring.
• Drew Butler is set to follow in his father's footsteps.
• Georgia's 2013 recruiting class has taken off with early commitments.
• There is a lot of optimism at Kentucky as spring camp comes to an end.
• Parrish Alford of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal writes that Ole Miss needs to create good feelings heading into summer.
• The good, bad and uncertain coming out of South Carolina's spring.
• Incentives for new Tennessee assistant coaches are detailed in contracts.
• Tennessee is developing an appreciation for physicality in its running game this spring.
• Despite rumors, Bill Byrne is still the athletic director at Texas A&M.
• Texas A&M special teams coach Brian Polian digs recruiting in the South.

Arkansas will be facing Texas A&M in the state of Texas in 2012, but it won't be at Cowboys Stadium as originally scheduled.

Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne announced over the weekend that the Aggies would face the Hogs next season on Sept. 29 at Kyle Field, giving Texas A&M six home games. In 2013, Texas A&M will play at Arkansas. The series will then go back to Cowboys Stadium in 2014, and be played in Arlington, Texas, for the final seven years of the original 10-year contract that was signed prior to Texas A&M joining the SEC.

Consider it a two-year compromise. Texas A&M preferred to play the game on campus, and Arkansas wanted to keep the game at Cowboys Stadium. The Hogs like the idea of playing a game every year in the Dallas area for recruiting purposes.

With next season's Arkansas game being played at Kyle Field, that means Texas A&M will have a very attractive home schedule during its first season in the SEC. Florida will visit College Station the second week of the season on Sept. 8. Arkansas closes out the month by visiting on Sept. 29. LSU comes to town on Oct. 20, and Missouri will visit Kyle Field for the regular-season finale on Nov. 24.

Texas A&M finally has its last nonconference opponent set for the 2012 season.

Athletic director Bill Byrne announced Wednesday that Sam Houston State has signed a contract to face the Aggies in College Station, Texas, on Nov. 17 to close out Texas A&M's nonconference schedule.

“The football schedule for 2012 is nearly complete,” Byrne said.

The only other part of the schedule that needs to be completed is the location for the Arkansas game. The Southwest Classic has been played in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas the past three years, but neither school is sure if that will continue in 2012 and beyond. Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino has already expressed his desire to keep the game at Cowboys Stadium instead of doing a home-and-home.

Here is what the Aggies' 2012 schedule looks like with the addition of Sam Houston State:

Aug. 30 -- vs. Louisiana Tech (Independence Stadium), Shreveport, La

Sept. 8 -- vs. Florida

Sept. 15 -- at SMU

Sept. 22 -- vs. South Carolina State

Sept. 29 -- vs. Arkansas (A&M is home team), Location TBD

Oct. 6 -- at Ole Miss

Oct. 13 -- Open date

Oct. 20 -- vs. LSU

Oct. 27 -- at Auburn

Nov. 3 -- at Mississippi State

Nov. 10 -- at Alabama

Nov. 17 -- vs. Sam Houston State

Nov. 24 -- vs. Missouri

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas A&M won't be joining the SEC until next year, but the Aggies were welcomed with a brief ceremony at halftime.

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long and chancellor Dave Gearhart presented Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin and athletic director Bill Byrne with a football commemorating the Aggies' new conference membership.

The big screen at Cowboys Stadium also showed a promotional video for Texas A&M to the SEC in 2012, which was welcomed by one of the day's loudest "Whoops!" from the Aggies fans.