ON JUNE 15, 2009, Texas A&M University made the seemingly insignifi cant announcement that R. Bowen Loftin, a bespectacled vice president with several physics degrees, had been promoted toserve as interim president of the College Station campus. No one could have predicted at the time that the bowtie-adorned, self-proclaimed technology and computer "geek" would emerge fromobscurity to lead A&M on one of the most signifi cant and landscape altering journeys in the history of the high-stakes world of college athletic conferences. The 100-Year Decision: Texas A&M and theSEC is Loftin's compelling, fi rst-person account of the events that led to A&M's historic exit from the Big 12 Conference and its entry into the prestigious SEC. In this candid memoir, readers witnesswhat happened in the closed-door meetings that fed this Texas-sized controversy, with all the deception, manipulation, political pressure, and deal-making anyone could expect.
R. BOWEN LOFTIN, a 1970 graduate of Texas A&M University, served as president of Texas A&M from 2010 to the end of 2013, following eight months as interim president and four years as a university vice president assigned as the chief executive offi cer of Texas A&M's Galveston branch campus, where he was also a professor of maritime systems engineering. Loftin became chancellor of the University of Missouri on February 1, 2014. RUSTY BURSON covered Texas A&M athletics for more than 20 years in newspapers and at 12th Man Magazine. He has authored 15 books previously, mostassociated with Texas A&M and Aggie athletics.