In addition to the letter Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin sent to the Big 12 on Wednesday, detailing the university's plans to leave the Big 12 in favor of another conference, the Aggies also received a letter from Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe detailing the process in leaving the conference.
From the sound of things, that mainly includes a monetary penalty. It's always all about the money, after all. In this report, the numbers A&M stands to gain just in money from the conference increases by about $8 million. That does not include any money from a renegotiated TV contract, which the Aggies would be free to do after making the switch.
According to this report in the Bryan/College Station Eagle, the next step for A&M would be to officially apply for membership in the SEC. That would then trigger a vote from the current members and three-fourths of the member institutions would need to approve A&M as the newest member.
The last interesting thing about this is that the Aggies wanted to have this process finalized before the Sunday game against SMU. However, it looks like the switch won't be made official until next week. Any conference affiliation switch would not take effect until after the 2011-2012 season.