(09-26-2013 08:43 AM)10thMountain Wrote:  Van has it correct.

The Okie schools are defacto Texas schools when it comes to recruiting Texas kids.

Nobody has been more hurt in recruiting by our move than OU because now a lot of those blue chip TX kids who were choosing OU in the original B12 are instead jumping at the offer of "why leave the state when you can stay here and play in the SEC"

As one recruit put it "Oklahoma is a great program...but Texas A&M plays in the SEC and if you wanna play on Sundays you wanna play in the SEC"

We would be stupid to vote "yes" on an expansion that took that advantage away and re-empowered OU in TX recruiting.

We may not get our way, but A&M will be a firm member of the "stay at 14 until and unless we get an opportunity to get into the NC/VA markets" group

I wasn't all too aware of how OU recruits. Thanks for the reply.

I've seen a lot of quality NFL guys come from outside of the SEC/B1G. The SEC has done a great job of selling the NFL angle, however - and that will wind up scoring them recruits they wouldn't normally have access to in the future.

If I were Oklahoma, I would just "go national" in my recruiting now that A&M is in the SEC. The Oklahoma brand (good school as well, but I'm talking about the football brand) is outstanding, and in my opinion it transcends the reach of the Big XII.

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Looking at why recruits prefer the SEC these days:

There are some ugly flaws in the "SEC logic" AND SEC establishment.

Slive's administration - and all of the SEC school leaders - damn well know this, and therefore they choose to compensate by doing a great job of marketing who they are PLANNING TO BE to recruits, fans, and even potential students. If you tell enough people that you are the greatest, eventually everyone believes it - and that includes future five-star players.

There's a lesson to be learned from the SEC's growth. It follows this tried and true phrase: "If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will". The SEC built an elite football product by capitalizing on their biggest flaws (arrogance and conceit) - and converting them into positive features (confidence and aggression).

It went down like this:
1. SEC tells everyone they are the greatest (when they're not).
2. Recruits hear nothing but "SEC is the greatest".
3. Recruits like the new-found SEC "confidence", and sign in to the system at hand.
4. SEC schools experience on-field dominance thanks to improved recruiting driven by their own arrogance.
5. The SEC is now ACTUALLY THE BEST, and what was once known to be "SEC arrogance" becomes "SEC confidence and accomplishment".

The beauty of it isn't the result (SEC = #1 football conference). The beauty of it is the masterfully engineered public deception that laid the foundation for nearly a DECADE of SEC dominance.