Texas A&M;, Texas Won’t Jump Leagues : College athletics: The Southwest Conference stalwarts decide to stay put, but call for changes in league operations.

Texas and Texas A&M; announced today that they will stay in the Southwest Conference, the league the schools helped form 76 years ago.

The announcement from the schools’ presidents ended weeks of speculation that they would leave for greener pastures.

The speculation started when Arkansas, the only non-Texas school in the nine-team league, announced it would join the Southeastern Conference next year. Most conference officials predicted doom for the SWC if Texas and Texas A&M; had followed Arkansas’ lead.

Presidents William Cunningham of the University of Texas at Austin and William Mobley of Texas A&M; University said today that they “are committed to doing everything possible to strengthen the conference and make it successful.”

But their statement left open the possibility for expansion of the SWC or alliance with other non-SWC schools.

“We need to be flexible, we need to be careful, we need to be thoughtful, and we need to be creative--more creative than anything else,” Cunningham said in a radio interview. “This is not the time to be shutting out alternatives.”

Cunningham also said it is too early to ask another school to join the conference.

The presidents said there are still several topics the conference must address immediately. They include:

* Greater fan support and attendance at athletic events throughout the conference.

* Flexibility in scheduling of men’s and women’s basketball and the addition of non-conference games in football.

* Possible conference expansion or alliances with non-SWC institutions that can “substantially enhance televised coverage of football games.” Texas Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds said SWC schools are losing Texas high school recruits to other states, and one major reason is the lack of network television. By leaving “holes” in the SWC basketball schedule in January, February and March, the league would hope to showcase its teams, Dodds said.

Dodds said possibilities include an alliance with the Big Eight or teams on the Eastern Seaboard.

* A firm commitment at the conference level to developing first-class programs in men’s and women’s basketball.

* A more “competitive environment” for women’s athletics.