For years, the Texas A&M Aggies were the butt of jokes by fans of pretty much every school in the now defunct Southwest Conference (SWC).
Now, as Texas A&M prepares for its first season as a member of the expanded Southeastern Conference (SEC), some “Aggies” are living up to their old SWC reputation.
As CNBC Sports anchor Darren Rovell pointed out, a t-shirt, produced by Aggieland Outfitters which touts the move to the SEC, includes a hilarious mistake.
The t-shirt, which reads “We may be new to the conference, but we aren’t new to the game,” includes outlines of the states from the pre-expansion SEC…with one small problem. It includes the state of North Carolina, which does not have an SEC school.
Admittedly, the mistake wouldn’t even be that funny if it weren’t made by an Aggie company.
Since then, Aggieland Outfitters has issued an apology.
From their blog
We would like to apologize for a t-shirt that has come under fire for its inaccuracies. Many members of the media, especially those connected to other schools in Texas, have insinuated that Texas A&M made these shirts, and that Texas A&M doesn’t know geography. That’s simply not true. Aggieland Outfitters designed the shirt and simply made a mistake.
The t-shirt was originally designed to reflect the SEC states before expansion on the front, and then refer to the addition of a “Texas style of football” on the back. The original sketch did not have North Carolina on it, but when an artist drew the map, it was added by mistake.
Texas and Missouri were never part of the design, as it was supposed to be a nod to the original 12 members of the SEC.
The shirts have been pulled from the stores and website, and we’ve addressed the issue internally. We have also put several measures into place to make sure that this sort of error does not happen again.
While it was a simple error, our biggest concern is that Texas A&M is associated with it, and that was never our intention. We strive to be the No. 1 retailer of Texas A&M merchandise, and will continue to design and sell the best possible selection for Aggies and A&M fans everywhere.Gig’em Aggies!
The damage, however, has already been done. USA Today picked up the story, as did NBC Sports, and several other sites.
Welcome to the SEC, Texas A&M. Here’s to a whole new generation of laughing at Aggies.
