two months after Nebbie announced to leave. A&M's president admitted as much when he said that they had been working on getting in the sec for 18 months soon after they were accepted into the sec. The LHN consternation was a very public ruse to hide the fact that they had been working behind the scenes (illegally?) to screw the B12 and destroy it.
They followed NU's template to create a boogie man and create as much public outcry as possible to get their fanbase on board to justify breaking up 100+ years of tradition
In both cases, it worked
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