Hilarious. According to my sources, he's currently a 4th year med student at UT-Houston. Anyway it's anyone's game right now..we'll see what happens in the next two days. What I would find to be a hilarious scenario is that A&M bolts, SEC still says no, awkwardness develops between a&m and big 12 (10). C-USA will welcome A&M, accepts them, then UH joins the Big 12. Is it going to happen? Highly unlikely but that would be the ultimate "ha-ha" moment.
Some people here think the Aggies have never been any good, and because of that they will never be any good. But, the Aggies have been good in the past and they will certainly be good at some point in the future. Just because they have not been good over the last 10 years or so, doesn't mean they won't be good in the near future, it's anyone's guess. The Aggies had some good teams in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 70's, 80's, and 90's, so I think it's possible they could have some good years ahead. We won't know until they play the games. A&M is a large school in a big time football state, they will have some good teams in the future. I think they will have years they are competitive in the SEC, and they will have years they are not competitive, just like UT last year. All teams have their ups and downs. So, that's my opinion and it doesn't mean very much, just like all opinions when it comes to sports.
Hell, Phil Steele has em projected in a BCS game this year, as do several other publications. They have a top 5-10 recruiting class coming in next year. They may well already be good.
In their 120 year football history, ATM has been ranked in the top 10, eleven times. Of those 11, 6 were in a 10 year span during the Sherrill/Slocum years where they were busted twice by the NCAA. ATM will be lucky to be as good as Arkansas in the SEC.
Tbh, they're going to be good. That's why I think this might blow up in A&M's face. They have finally climbed up the big 12 ladder and are taking a big risk joining a deeper conference. Any team in any given week can beat you in the SEC. Teams like South Carolina and Ole Miss aren't jokes. Edit: It's needless to say that the SEC is also top heavy. LSU. Florida. Alabama. Heck, Georgia would have been #2 in the big 12 last season. Enjoy, Ags.
If we got rid of all of the posts in this thread talking about how badly A&M is gonna get buttraped in the SEC it sure would be a lot easier to follow/read when it comes to the actual newsbits. A&M's competitiveness (or lack thereof) in football recently has jacksquat to do with this decision. A&M doesn't care about finding the easiest path to a national title or BCS game, and the SEC doesn't care about adding a world-beater program, these decisions center around financial growth, stability, and organizational control. Coaches come and go, programs rise and fall, but your conference shouldn't. Don't be so short-sighted. As for the recent developments, you have to think A&M is going to go through with the petition for addition. No reason for them not to do so now. Only thing that can stop them is the gubbermint.
I think this will get done eventually if not it would pretty funny to see them crawling back.... I think aTm has great potential anywhere big 12 or SEC.. But I would like to see a finished product before I would say they've turned a corner. Pre-season rankings mean very little. They have a highly rated 2012 recruiting class but that is months away from being a done deal as well. They were rated behind both UT, TCU. Tech for the 2011 recruiting year ( from rivals). Fact is for the last 10 years they the 4th best in state behind UT TCU and Tech. To say they've turned any corner is premature its like the texans saying it after finishing 8-8......
what's more fun than sports reporters commenting vaguely on the machinations and implications of an extremely complicated legal matter regarding contracts that none of their sources have ever read? :grin:
This is where the stupidity comes in. Georgia was 6-7 last year and lost to UCF in a bowl game. They also lost to Big12 scrub Colorado. They wouldn't be anywhere close to #2 in the Big12 last year. It's this kind of nonsense argument that makes it clear people are just trying to throw stuff out there to make fun of the Aggies, rather than posting things that are even remotely based on fact. Besides which, if that's the argument - that a team should be in a terrible conference just so they can win - why not advocate Baylor and A&M moving to C-USA or the WAC? After all, they could win more games that way and that's all that apparently matters.
I've actually been an advocate of this for BU in the past. I haven't gone to many games at all since I graduated...mostly because they've all been foregone conclusions. It's too much of a hassle to go up to Waco knowing my team is going to lose. It's been that way since about 1995. That's a really long time. Not sure they wouldn't have been better served in a lesser conference...see TCU.
I agree - I think a part of the benefit is a crappier conference, but I think a part of it is also that you get to sell something different. That's why I think A&M going to the SEC is good for them. Sure, it's a tougher conference, but it also gives them something unique. In TCU/BU's case, it's a little different because the MWC is not really a selling point vs the B12, but it does get them off the wagon of trying to chase Texas, Tech and A&M. I think BU would rightfully fight any destruction of the Big12 just because the money would drop a lot, but I do think it would be good for them in the long run from a purely competitive standpoint. Going back to A&M, I think the same people mocking them for wanting to go to the SEC would mock them for wanting to go the MWC too. They'll mock A&M for staying in the B12 too, if that's how it plays out. The end game is already decided for them and then they'll fit the argument to make sure they can do that.
TCU worked their asses off for the better part of a decade to get where they are now. Their crappy conference affiliations did them no favors. Baylor could succeed if they had the leadership and determination that TCU does, perhaps even moreso with the backing of the Big 12, not to mention the gobs of money and publicity that comes with that. Take it from a Cougar, unless you have the utmost faith in the BU administration to continue to strive and achieve success, going to a place like the MWC or CUSA would all but kill your program.
Agreed. The problem is, they just made plans (including budgeting) centered around a $1.3 billion TV deal with FOX. They'd fight for the cash anyway, because that's what ALL OF THIS is about for every party involved. But they'll fight especially hard because this was a bird in hand already.
You may very well be right. Maybe it's better to say there's no "right" way to pick a conference from that perspective. I can just tell you that Baylor football moved from competitive to absolutely irrelevant with the move to the Big XII. From week to week, there was zero chance to think you'd win that Saturday's matchup, for a long stretch of time Becomes difficult to care about.
Here's a perfect example. Baylor would never have been able to poach Briles away from Houston (thus giving them their first competitive team in a while) for the ridiculous amount of money they did if not for their Big 12 affiliation. Trust me, it's better to sit in the wobbly chair at the grown-ups table than the most awesome seat at the kiddie table. Always. And if you disagree, you're more than welcome to switch places with us.
I think it depends on the circumstance - if you're going to suck, it's certainly better to suck in a good conference because you get more money. But if you're TCU, despite all the effort they put in and everything they did right, they likely wouldn't be able to maintain that level of success in the Big12. They would just end up recruiting head-to-head vs Texas, OU, etc. They might be able to become good - but to stay at that level and build a program at that level would have been tough. In the MWC, TCU can now sell people on winning conferences and going to BCS games on a regular basis. It's harder to do that when you have UT and OU in your conference. For all the suckiness of UH, they at least have opportunities to win C-USA and have Hesiman contenders and a couple of years ago, they even had a chance to go undefeated - these are things that Baylor won't likely see anytime soon in the B12.
All valid points, but the trump card is the money. A bottom feeder Big 12 school gets probably 5-6 times (low estimate) as much revenue as a top CUSA school. Almost no amount of perceived success is worth that.
