Dr. Loftin talks SEC, MSC, Blue Bell Park & Aggie Dance Team

Notes from R. Bowen Loftin interview

* The MSC is really coming along well. I took a tour recently and some of the spaces are shaping up nicely. When I was a student it was a great place to hide out. That's all changed now (chuckle), with high ceilings. We are looking forward to Muster this year, when the facility will open. We're also doing something grand in the fall. To be able to have our pregame activites and see it across the street from Kyle Field in the fall will be nice.

We have a lot of natural light filling the bottom three floors. When you walk in and see that, it inspires you. The new 12th Man Hall expansion is fantastic. Well-lit, again. Wonderful feeling when you walk in there. It's a two-story hall and there's a lot of great, pretty visuals celebrating the 12th Man tradition. Then you go to the new ballroom ... the biggest in the Brazos Valley. You can seat 1,000 people in there. We've been missing that for a long time. We'll have it back in April and be using it a lot in the fall.

* On the level of ongoing construction: We've come down a bit on the new construction side of the equation; most of what we're doing now is renovations. On Wellborn and Old Main, the big deal, we have a grade separation going on, which is well-, well-needed. A lot of people cross east and west across this campus every day right across that intersection and to have it separated where bicyclists, pedestrians and vehicles can go under Wellborn and the railroad tracks will be a fantastic addition. It's just 18 months of pain to get there, that's the problem. During football season ... hope for the best.

* I think things are on track right now with the SEC, though there are still a few uncertainties. We've finally got the football schedule nailed down, that took a while. Not just us, everyone is scrambling to make these non-con games work. But we're going to start with a clean, fresh slate for the fall of '13, so we're really kind of equalizing things. We're working hard on all our schedules for the next seasons in the other sports. That's not quite done yet. I'm going to my first SEC board meeting in Atlanta next month, in fact.

It's been so wonderful to be welcomed to the SEC Everyone has been good to us. I went to the national title game in New Orleans as Commissioner Slive's guest. Everyone I met, it was open arms. A&M is going to fit in great in the SEC. Florida President Machen's wife and my wife are good friends, we're both horse people, and he's coming here with his wife and bringing his Board of Trustees with him in September, so we'll have an all-star cast for the first SEC game here. Slive promised me a good opening game, so it was good to get this. Florida will come in here on Friday and have dinner with me and our regents, and they asked about going to that 'rally' we have on Friday nights. I said, 'How late do you want to stay up?' (laughter) Hopefully for the first time they'll all see the inside of Kyle Field, with likely 30,000 kids out there that night, and it'll be an awesome — and scary — sight for them.

* We've seen the licensing of A&M apparel go up by 25% almost overnight. That's what it's all about here. The branding is part of why we did this. The branding will now be national in scope. The sponsorships will be here because when that ESPN camera scans over your name, it goes everywhere.

* We need the Reed Rowdies there tonight big time, no question about it. I'm hoping for the best. We'll see white completely behind both baskets tonight. It has a bit of an effect on the other team. Obviously we've had a bit of a tough season this year, it's not going the way we want to and the injuries have been really difficult to manage, but those guys are very gritty and they'll play their best and especially if the 12th Man is there in large numbers. Let's fill the place up tonight.

* You've got prime space here (in the Zone Plaza, where the show was set up), with students parking on West Campus and walking under Wellborn, right by here, giving you a lot of traffic. Liucci's shooting baskets and he'll attract the co-eds (more laughter).

* Blue Bell Park is a sight. I was there last night and it was a surprisingly tight game, but the guys pulled it out. The park absolutely blows you away when you walk in there. You walk up and take it in for just a moment and it gets you. I walked around a bit and took in the sightlines, we had a great student section that makes a lot of noise and the team appreciates that. Everyone's happy about Blue Bell Park. I was up in one of the suites and we had a big cooler of Blue Bell sitting right there. I had to resist real hard.

* We've had some unsettling times over the last few months, as you know. This transition was really popular to the 2010 realignment saga, so the support for the SEC move was really high — but people are still uncertain about it. The termination of Mike Sherman certainly sent some big waves out. But Kevin Sumlin's come in and shown what he can do. Not just the recruiting, but when he interacts with the donors and the fan base. His wife's a great asset, she goes out there with him side-by-side. The guy's energy level is beyond even mine.

* On having a dance team on Kyle Field: First of all, remember that we got rated by Sports Illustrated this past year as the best gameday experience in America. Think about that, guys. Don't mess with success. Now, we are going to be getting much more national attention. I have no opinion about this. It hasn't gotten to me in any way other than rumors and hearing people talking about it. No action is being taken by athletics at all right now. So we'll just wait and see. But again, I just want to preserve the. best. gameday experience in the country. That's all.