The Battalion - July 27, 2021

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The Battalion | 7.27.21

Careful what you wish for Longhorns, Sooners look to join Southeastern Conference in 2025

By Jennifer Streeter @jennystreeter3 It’s official.

After days of speculation, The University of Texas and The University of Oklahoma have taken the first steps toward leaving the Big 12 and officially joining the Southeastern Conference.

“The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Oklahoma notified the Big 12 Athletic Conference [on July 26] that they will not be renewing their grants of media rights

following expiration in 2025,” a joint statement from the University of Texas at Austin and The University of Oklahoma read.

Based on the statement, it seems that UT and OU will be joining the SEC after the 2024-25 athletics season, following the expiration of their grant of television rights.

“Providing notice to the Big 12 at this point is important in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement,” the statement continued. “The universities intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how to best position their athletics programs for the future.”

Speculation on the matter was first made

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public on Wednesday, July 21, by Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle.

“Texas and Oklahoma of the Big 12 have reached out to the Southeastern Conference about joining the powerful league, a high-ranking college official with knowledge of the situation told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday,” Zwerneman wrote.

Following the article, social media erupted. Sooners, Longhorns and Aggies alike

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expressed their opinions on the potential conference growth. Critics include senior defensive back Leon O’Neal Jr., who accused UT of trying to copy Texas A&M. “They do everything we do they wanna be us,” O’Neal tweeted.

Additionally, rumors swirled that this decision has been in the works with SEC

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LIFE&ARTS

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The Battalion | 7.27.21

Bottling success

PROVIDED

After moving to the United States in 1993, Frank and Annette Volleman began what is now Volleman’s Family Farm, serving the Aggie community and beyond with their dairy products.

Volleman family brings back bottled milk with hints of family tradition

By Shelby McVey @shelbyxbreann From the fields of Holland and Luxembourg, to Gustine, Texas, the Volleman family farm can be traced back over 100 years in the dairy industry. Today, it’s bringing a time-honored tradition back to Aggieland — bottled milk.

In over 160 stores across Texas, including Producer’s Cooperative Association in Bryan, Volleman’s Family Farm has created a new way to buy bottled milk in stores. With a $2 “bottle deposit,” customers can leave with a bottle of milk, bring that bottle back once it has been used and receive their deposit back to

continue buying the family’s product.

Seeking better opportunities and growth, Andrew Volleman, Class of 2017, said his parents, Frank and Annette Volleman, made the decision in 1993 to move their family from a small dairy farm in Luxembourg to a larger patch of farmland in central Texas.

“They wanted to give us, as their kids, opportunities to be able to do more than just have one family member come back to the farm, which is normally pretty common in Europe,” Andrew said. “So they decided to come to the land of opportunity and moved to Texas.”

Starting their operation with about 100 cows, Andrew said his parents did a majority of the work themselves, constantly finding better ways to take care of the family’s dairy cows. It wasn’t long before the family was poking around with ideas on how to expand

with their newfound growth.

“One of the things that was always in the back of their minds [was] that they wanted to get closer to the consumer,” Andrew said.

“They wanted to find ways to offer our products directly to the consumer instead of the traditional method of going through dairy coops. So, for the longest time now, that has always been a goal of ours — to just get closer to that consumer. We just didn’t know what it was going to be at that point.”

After the four brothers graduated from the Texas A&M system, Andrew said the siblings used their education to better the family business and amplify it in the way their parents always dreamed of.

“We were kind of going back and forth about how we wanted to build this and how we wanted to make this successful,” Andrew said. “So in December of [2019], we official-

ly launched our concept and said ‘Hey look, we’re going to come and offer our local milk in returnable glass bottles.’”

Andrew said his family’s idea to bring back bottled milk services took off virtually overnight, with the company’s initial post being shared thousands of times on their social media. That is when Andrew knew that the investment his entire family was making would pay off.

“We really wanted to push that message of sustainability that we’ve always been so focused on here at the dairy,” Andrew said.

“And it just skyrocketed overnight. The posts were reaching more people than we even remotely knew. I mean like 20- or 30-thousand people. It was awesome. We were reaching such a large amount of people in a short amount of time and we realized then that we FAMILY FARM ON PG. 6

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The Battalion | 7.27.21

Is your plate up to date?

Texas A&M makes move to permitless parking for upcoming academic year

By Aubrey Vogel @aubrey_vogel

Photos via aggieplates.tamu.edu and FILE

Over 36,000 student and faculty drivers will rely on their license plates to validate parking on campus beginning in the fall semester.

Beginning August 7, students and staff will no longer use physical parking permits on campus, but rather their license plates will act as a virtual permit.

Texas A&M Transportation Services is transitioning to permitless parking beginning this fall, according to the Department of Transportation Services associate director Julie Villarreal. However, there are a few exceptions for gated lots and parking garages.

“For the majority of campus users, the license plate is the permit,” Villarreal said. “Staff will confirm vehicles parked in their valid parking areas through the use of camera technology which checks the parking authorization for the license plate.”

Students should ensure their parking permits are up to date by checking the license plate they have registered to the account, Department of Transportation Services executive director Debbie Hoffmann said. Each student is permitted one vehicle per parking pass, while faculty and staff are allotted up to three vehicles using the same pass, though only one is allowed on campus at a time.

“We are excited to initiate virtual permit parking on campus this fall,” Hoffmann said.

“Customers should be sure to update their plate in their parking account to ensure it matches the vehicle they are driving to campus that day.”

Associate director Lynn Wiggs said the system has been implemented at A&M’s RELLIS campus prior to being moved to main campus.

“We have been successful in using virtual permits at RELLIS since 2018 and are ready to incorporate the advanced technology on main campus,” Wiggs said.

As for night and weekend parking, everything will remain the same, Wiggs said. For special events, pass holders will need to print a receipt from their parking account or have their account pulled up on their phone for easy access to lots affected by events.

“Simply print the receipt or display it by phone to the lot attendant who will verify the license plate shown on the receipt matches the vehicle being driven,” Wiggs said. “Since the license plate is the permit, the plate on the receipt needs to match the vehicle for access.”

The exception to this rule will be those who park in garages. They will still receive an access device to scan in order to enter the parking garages or other gated facilities. The devices will be sent between July 17 and August 1 and should arrive prior to the new parking permit start date.

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The Battalion | 7.27.21

FAMILY FARM CONTINUED

PROVIDED

All four of the Volleman brothers and their wives attended the Texas A&M University System, graduating with degrees that have helped develop the family business.

needed to move a little faster.”

Starting with roughly 20 stores, Andrew said by the time he got through with his first day of delivering the bottles of milk, nearly every one of them was calling to tell him that all of the milk had sold out hours after delivery.

“That kind of went on and on for several days. I didn’t even make it that full second day [of delivery without] those same stores we delivered to that morning saying they were completely sold out,” Andrew said. “It was incredible. Those first several weeks, we had lines of people waiting to just get the bottles out of the crates as we were delivering them. It was a really neat experience that kind of just took off.”

A whole family affair, marketing director Shelby Volleman, Class of 2017, said although she never saw herself getting involved in the family’s dairy business, her husband Andrew convinced her to move back home with him after graduation, and she hasn’t looked back since.

“I was kind of hesitant at first because I didn’t grow up with a family that had a family-owned business like that,” Shelby said. “I didn’t know what that lifestyle was like. But I’ve loved it ever since, and just getting to be a part of this business and getting to watch it grow, to have a hand in it, is really neat.”

After only a year of their bottled milk being on store shelves, Andrew said the growth his family has seen through Volleman’s Family Farm and its loyal customers has been fast, but completely satisfying to be a part of.

“It’s just been a really crazy thing,” Andrew said. “We’ve grown tremendously.

The big thing that the consumers have just fell in love with has been quality. That’s the most important thing for us. We wanted to create a fresh product that tastes like you just drank it straight out of the cow. And I just think consumers fell in love with that. We’ve been told multiple times we have the best chocolate milk in the state of Texas. That uniqueness of the glass bottle is what consumers love — the sustainability of it all.”

Since Aggieland is where they learned how to expand their family’s century old business, Andrew said the move to putting their milk in College Station stores as an Aggie has been an incredible experience.

“We’ve been looking for weeks, maybe even months, to find a way to service that College Station market,” Andrew said. “We knew there were people there wanting milk, and being that this is where we breathed and bled maroon, we’re die-hard Aggies, so this has all just been really awesome.”

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ANSWERS

leadership and the two schools for months. The Austin American-Statesman reported on Friday, July 23, that a Big 12 source believed talks between the SEC and the two schools had been ongoing for over six months, with A&M leadership being left out of the conversation.

Furthermore, theories on the potential SEC expansion were at its peak during the 2021 SEC Media Days, with many coaches and conference representatives refusing to comment on the matter. In no coincidence, the day the speculation erupted, July 21, was A&M’s day at the weeklong conference A&M head football coach Jimbo Fisher shared his thoughts on the two teams potentially joining the SEC. The 2021 Orange Bowl Championship coach said he is remaining focused on his top priority — the Aggies and the Aggies alone.

“I bet they would [like to join],” Fisher said at this year’s SEC Media Days. “I’m just worried about Texas A&M. We got the greatest league in ball. I’ll control what I want to control here.”

Fisher has not been the only Aggie official to publicly comment on the matter.

A&M Director of Athletics Ross Bjork said he wants Texas A&M to be the only Texas school allowed to participate in SEC play.

“We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas,” Bjork said. “There’s a reason Texas A&M left the Big 12 — to stand alone to have our own identity.”

The joint statement from The University of Texas and The University of Oklahoma is the most recent public comment made by either school on the matter.

“Be careful what you ask for if you jump in this league,” Fisher said.

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The Battalion | 7.27.21

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