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Byrne also announced some non-conference agreements for 2009 with New Mexico returning to Kyle Field (Sept. 5) and Utah State (Sept. 19) coming to Kyle Field for one game. The Aggies will travel to Shreveport, Louisiana, to continue a 2-for-1 series with Louisiana Tech facing the Bulldogs at Independence Stadium on Sept. 12, 2009.

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10-1, book it

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In my annual State of the Department presentation last weekend at the Bright Football Building with about 200 people present, I seem to have caught a few by surprise in revealing that Air Force and Michigan State have pulled out of agreements to play us. There are also emails reflecting some doubt of the veracity of those comments.

If you doubt my candor, you don't know me very well. John L. Smith, the coach at Michigan State, and I played against each other in high school football. He was a lot better than I was. We talked personally about them not wanting our game. And though I didn't speak directly to the athletic director at Air Force, senior associate AD John Thornton did, and they wanted to go another direction, too.

That one was particularly disappointing because we feel that games with the service academies are a good fit for what Texas A&M University represents. These developments are examples of a national issue and trend, brought about by changes in the BCS system whereby only wins matter and not, unlike basketball, strength of schedule.

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Several of you also were curious about how easily it seemed that Michigan State and Air Force could get out of contracts, and wondered whether we might try to bind them to play us. Usually in a home-and-home arrangement there is no payout or financial penalty clause, unless it's cursory for travel expenses. If we wanted to hard-ball a school cancelling on us, it would become an expensive legal ordeal and probably wind up in court.

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