COLLEGE STATION - Texas A&M this weekend cut off season-ticket sales for football at a school-record 44,250. The boon in sales stems from a heavy dose of anticipation. For this year - and apparently for next.

The eighth-ranked Aggies enter this season with their highest preseason ranking in 12 years. And, if A&M gets its way, the Aggies will enter next season in a new conference - the one considered the nation's best for football.

"We sold 1,400 tickets in the last two weeks alone, since all of the SEC talk started," said Miles Marks, president of the school's 12th Man Foundation. "We've sold out of season tickets for the first time in history."

A&M on Saturday steadfastly moved forward in its plans to exit the Big 12 and enter the Southeastern Conference, preferably for the Aggies by the 2012 season.

A&M's brass has privately said all along that the Aggies hoped to have the move wrapped up by the end of this month, and that appears to be on the verge of happening. A&M president R. Bowen Loftin took part in a Big 12 board of directors teleconference on Saturday - at least the first part, according to an A&M insider. Loftin excused himself later in the call as the remaining members discussed A&M's impending exit, the insider said.

The only sticking point concerning the Aggies' impending exit appears to be the amount of a Big 12 exit fee. And while an A&M insider said to compare what A&M intends to pay to Nebraska's exit fee ($9.25 million), other media reports claim A&M's exit fee might reach $20 million or more.

Whatever the final exit number, it doesn't appear it will keep the Aggies from their plans at this point.

"I think the Aggies have made a decision that in their opinion is irreversible," Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said. "It's kind of like a divorce. When somebody makes up their mind, there's usually not much you can do about it."

Karen Warren/Chronicle

brent.zwerneman@chron.com