College Football: The SEC Effect
And really, there’s no better pitch to high school prospects than this. Facilities and mail-it-in majors and romancing coeds are essential in recruiting, but nothing trumps the promise of making it to The League. And nobody’s delivering that dream more effectively or consistently right now than the SEC.
When people talked about how A&M’s move was going to open up the Lone Star State to fellow SEC schools, I didn’t give the notion much credence. How much of an impact could it have? How much would it really change things? After all, a Texas prospect who commits to LSU or Florida would still only play in his home state, at most, twice in his career. Would that be enough of a draw to overcome any concerns of distance? And with the commonality of Slingboxes and sports packages and 500-channel cable systems, it’s not like there was any issue with Texans having the ability to watch Verne Lundquist wax poetically on Saturday afternoons; every game is just a click away, no matter where in the country you are.
But the point I missed out on, the idea I scoffed at, was exactly the point A&M has been clinging to: The cache that is carried by the letters S-E-C.
By allowing the league to extend its footprint westward, A&M turned a national brand local, giving Texans the opportunity to become a part of the hottest sensation going in college sports. High school coaches respect the conference, recruits want to be a part of it, and parents are secretly figuring out how to spend their kid’s first NFL signing bonus while dreaming about it. Look no further than Orangebloods.com’s 2014 recruiting rankings–a list that was once dominated by UT and Oklahoma, but is now littered with SEC leans and commits. LSU has always recruited Texas well, but more and more, prospects are naming schools like Alabama and Florida in their top five. And every interview a player gives almost always includes a reverential reference to the all-holy Southeastern Conference.
It’s an exercise in futility to argue in any way, shape, or form against the SEC–how it’s a top-heavy league, how the best teams don’t necessarily play each other in any given year, how only five bowl teams from 2012 are on Alabama’s 2013 schedule–because seven straight national titles (rightfully so) trumps all. Right now, the perception is it’s their world, meaning the reality is that the rest of us are just living in it.
But it shouldn’t be forgotten that college football is nothing if not cyclical. It wasn’t that long ago that USC was the seemingly unbeatable goliath, reeling off 34 straight victories and starring in ESPN’s “Greatest Team Ever” debate (I searched for a link for this but couldn’t find it. I’m guessing the guys in Bristol took it down just after this happened), and now they’re reeling at rock bottom of the Lane Kiffin Era. From 2005 – 2009, Mack Brown was a dropped Blake Gideon interception, a foolish Big 12 tiebreaker, and a Colt McCoy injury from potentially having a run every bit as dominant as what Nick Saban’s currently putting together. Three seasons later, he’s the poster child of mediocrity and entitlement in the eyes of most of Longhorn Nation. There’s a fine line that every school (or conference) walks, and whether it’s because of another league asserting itself or NCAA sanctions or a particular coach (Saban) moving on (if recent history is a teacher, NCAA sanctions are probably the safest bet of the three), the SEC will eventually find itself on the wrong side of it, giving way to a new top dog on the block. And round and round we’ll go.
Until then, though, I’m going to keep trying to cope with the idea that I was outsmarted by a bunch of Aggies.
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You can contact Brent Stoller at hookemheadlines@gmail.com.