[College Football] Big Ten, Texas have initial talks

I heard that too, but this was from yesterday.

 

Of course Dodds is going to talk about ND, it's a dream scenario for them. That'd be like me giving props to someone for saying UH is thinking about the Big 12, and then Mack Rhodes confirms that.

 

I'm not meaning to. In most years, the Big 12 has about two legitimate Top 10 teams, and sometimes one of those deserves a national title shot. The SEC has typically has 4 or 5 legitimate Top 10 teams, and most of the time one deserves a national title shot.

Texas A&M will not be a national championship contender in the foreseeable future in either conference. They have an outside shot at a BCS bid in the Big 12, and no shot in the SEC.

 

it is in the short term. A&M is trying to make its way back. it will be easier for it to do that given the landscape of the Big 12 compared to SEC. If A&M gets buried in the SEC for another 7 years or so after the extended low period they've come out of...that's not a good thing. that's not a move forward.

 

there's more to it than that, i promise. i'm not saying it's happening..not saying it will happen. i'll just say there's more there than what you're alluding to.

 

fify.

 

It's not that playing better teams will mean better recruits - its that playing different teams will mean different recruits. Right now, A&M offers mostly the same stuff UT does. But for all the Texas kids currently going to SEC schools, now they have a way to play in the SEC without leaving the state. There's a lot of state pride in Texas, and if those kids can be recruited to play in the "best conference in the country" while not leaving home, that's a selling point that UT can't offer. Right now, besides tradition/conservativeness, there's not much A&M can sell kids on that Texas can't.

How many Texas kids currently go to LSU, Alabama, Florida, etc? All those recruits now become prime targets for A&M.

 

and BU thought playing in lincoln would matter, too.

 

LSU has a huge advantage over Texas A&M. Two recent national championships, the only serious player in a good football state, significant recruiting in Texas. That's not even a close comparison. A national championship gives Auburn an advantage over Texas A&M. That could change in five years, or it could take hold and last.

 

But that's just more evidence for my point - Baylor was still competing with Texas and A&M for the same recruits. Like A&M, they offer nothing that Texas can't offer more of. They are a 2nd tier Texas school in a conference with top tier Texas schools. The whole idea is to be the best Texas school in the conference - that's what A&M would get in the SEC. Not that there's some rampant desire to play in the MWC or Big East, but TCU has shown what having an independent identity can do. You still have to have good coaches and all that (that's necessary anywhere), but they are having success that they would never have being in the Big12.

 

Right - but what did those schools have BEFORE the national championships? They were able to recruit and win in a conference that had power players like Tennessee and Florida, who had recent national titles. At that point, they were no different than an A&M. They went out and got fantastic coaches, recruited well, and broke into the top tier of the SEC. If those schools could be successful in the SEC, then A&M can too. Would they have to work for it? Sure - but that's the case anywhere. A&M would have the same challenges breaking into the OU/TX group as well.

Ignoring recent success, A&M is far more similar in potential to an LSU or Auburn than it is to Mississippi State or Ole Miss or Kentucky.

 

I'm sure they will be happy to retain the annual game with Texas A&M - however, if I'm not mistaken, it will be either a tier-1 or a tier-3 matchup, which ESPN/ABC will have the complete and total liberty to broadcast....on the Longhorn Network.

 

Do you think A&M will be willing to, ahem, "recruit" like most of the major SEC players?

 

They can bring back Jackie Sherill. :grin:

 

That would be pretty hilarious to see.

 

Yep. Without it being a conference game, UT can pretty much do what it wants with the game if played in Austin.

It would make this whole thing worth it.

 

Maybe you're right about Auburn. I think Texas A&M and Auburn are really similar institutions as a whole. But you couldn't be more wrong about LSU. There is no comparison in the fanbases, football atmosphere, and other recruiting advantages between Texas A&M and LSU. If Texas A&M and LSU recruit the same players, LSU will get 90% of those that live east of I-45, and a significant minority of those in Texas A&M's own backyard. As a total package, LSU football is closer to Texas than Texas A&M is to LSU.

Texas A&M could build their program into a National Championship contender in the SEC. But I'd put higher odds on Arkansas or South Carolina doing it than Texas A&M.

 

TAMU is doing well in recruiting right now. They have a top 10 class coming in next year, maybe top 5. They are clearly on the up-and-up. Do you guys not realize college football is cyclical? Good teams fall, bad teams rise. This isn't the same TAMU from 3 years ago.

 

Prior to getting Nick Saban, LSU was nowhere on the radar of college football. They were basically unranked for the entire 1990's, and that had no real history of being great. They had a decent little run of being ranked in the teens in the mid 1980's and had a good run and national title in the late 1950s, but that's about it. Many people were surprised that Saban would leave his winning program at Michigian State for ... LSU.

Within 4 years, he won a national championship and rewrote the history of how we all view LSU.

 

That would be f***ing hilarious if it happened that way. Leave it to the Aggies to open up that possibility.