The Texas A&M Athletic department has made staff cuts. Sources have confirmed to KBTX Billy Pickard and Dave South were affected by the job cuts. Pickard was the Director of Facilities. South who serves as the voice of the Aggies will move to a part time position.

Chris Harrell confirmed to KBTX he was one of the people let go. Harrell was a member of the Texas A&M Sports Information Department for over ten years. His equestrian and women's swimming and diving media guides were voted ‘Best in the Nation’ at last month's College Sports Information Directors of America convention in San Antonio.

Director of Athletics Billy Byrne released the following statement.

“The Texas A&M University Athletic Department is facing difficult economic decisions like many companies and universities across the United States. Charged by the University to reduce the budget by $4.5 million for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, our goal was to make spending cuts that would not impact the competitiveness of our teams and to ensure that our student athletes have a good experience here at Texas A&M.

We were able to identify $3.5 million in cuts without reducing personnel. Unfortunately, today the Athletic Department had to eliminate 17 positions to balance the budget. The cuts came across the entire spectrum of the department. This difficult decision came after an exhaustive review of the entire program and with great reluctance.”