Texas football has clearly better recruiting pitch than Jimbo Fisher

In the last couple of cycles, both the Texas football program and the Texas A&M Aggies have absolutely caught fire on the recruiting trail. Texas A&M and head coach Jimbo Fisher secured the No. 1 ranked class in the nation for the 2022 recruiting cycle. And Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is well on his way to securing two consecutive top-five ranked recruiting classes in the nation for the 2022 and 2023 cycles.

Sark and the Longhorns are well on their way to even potentially challenging for the nation’s top-ranked 2023 recruiting class after landing a commitment back on June 23 from the elite five-star Isidore Newman quarterback Arch Manning.

One of the competitors that could also present a challenge for the No. 1 class in the nation for the 2023 cycle is Fisher and the Aggies.

But there was an interesting debate between Texas A&M’s Fisher and Colin Cowherd of “The Herd” in an interview this week. Fisher joined The Herd this week, and one of the items he discussed was Texas A&M’s success and pitch on the recruiting trail.

He mentioned that he believes that the Aggies have “the most complete package in the country” and that is largely based on the “education” and “university” making that place “unbelievable”. And Fisher also noted that Texas A&M is a “top 20 educational school in the country” and that essentially no one else will be able to have the “personal development” that the Aggies can boast for their students and student-athletes.

It does seem like Fisher is stretching this recruiting pitch a good bit when comparing Texas A&M to Texas. First and foremost, it’s hard to say that College Station is for everyone and that each recruit is going to like the smaller town feel compared to somewhere like Austin.

Jimbo Fisher’s recruiting pitch doesn’t trump that of Steve Sarkisian and Texas football

Fisher attempted to tout the education and culture experience for Texas A&M, which is a subjective argument at best.

Also, it looks like Fisher inflated the academic ranking for Texas A&M. According to the US News National University rankings for 2022, Texas A&M ties as the No. 68 national university in the country.

Fisher was off by a margin of roughly 50 schools if you go by Texas A&M’s US News national university ranking. And while I’m sure there’s some way that Fisher could spin Texas A&M being a top 20 college in terms of the prestige of the education, that doesn’t look to be the commonly accepted standing for the Aggies.

Meanwhile, the University of Texas is tied for the No. 38 national university in the country for 2022.

This goes to show that not only was Jimbo wrong regarding the national standing of the university’s education, but he also oversold the all-around development that Texas A&M brings to the table compared to Texas.

Texas is the more highly-rated university in terms of overall education. And Texas really can provide prospective student-athletes with really anything they could want to do in terms of the campus life and local scene. Austin provides student-athletes with opportunities to explore almost any professional path they want. It’s a major advantage for the University of Texas, especially in terms of the pitches to prospective recruits.

Even niche.com ranked the University of Texas as the second best college all-around in this state, one slot ahead of Texas A&M. The only university in the state that ranked above Texas and Texas A&M was Rice University.

And since we’re talking about rankings of different parts of these two universities, it’s worth noting that niche.com ranked Texas as the No. 10 “Big College” in America. Meanwhile, Texas A&M rang in at No. 18.

All in all, it’s hard for me to see how Fisher could realistically make a recruiting pitch that would hit home for recruits comparing the quality of education and the culture of the campus and surrounding area to that of Texas. Outside of some recruits wanting particular majors from one school compared to the other, the quality of education looks to give the edge to Texas.

The University of Texas looks to have the edge here from an objective perspective (at least in terms of some of the more notable college rankings) in this discussion.

If there was an angle that Fisher should’ve harped on for his recruiting pitch at the moment compared to Texas, it’s definitely the recent success on the field and the opportunity to play in the SEC right away. It still might be a few years before Texas and the Oklahoma Sooners are officially competing in the SEC.

It’s clear to see why Texas tends to have the more effective argument in terms of recruiting pitch for the perspectives away from football. Texas is one of the best public universities in the country in one of the most fun and fastest-growing cities in Austin. That gives Sark and his staff an incredibly powerful and potent pitch to give to recruits who emphasize some factors away from the field.