rickyspub

I figured his quick commitment to aggy had to do with us pushing him at S, but I guess not. Don't want be accused of shitting on his talent, but I am fine with the miss if he is dead set on being a CB (committing to aggy also doesn't say too much about him on the mental eval part either).

Thanks. I thought it was perhaps something more like Mach is suggesting, where because the services list him as a CB they think everyone is recruiting him as such, but our pitch was at S. If we are really looking at him as a CB, I am not going to sweat us missing on him.

This was the second 9.95er report that listed us looking at Jaylon Jones at CB. I thought we were on him as a S.

Survey says... ⌧

Not sure we needed to know you can't keep your Willie or Johnson straight.

No, I think Candi just realized Jimbo was a small dick, asshole and decided to live high off his money and get real men on the side. She was a little too obvious and Jimbo was forced to pull the plug and move to College Station.

I agree that he fills the roster gap that our small 2017 and 2019 classes have left. It is also insurance should one or more of the 2018 or 2019 classes prove to be misses and leave the program. That said, I probably would have been fine with not taking him as we could continue to pull in already developed GTs to cover holes in the next couple of seasons, if needed.

Do you really think our coaching staff is telling these guys that they aren't going in the first round?!? Few players at all go in the first round, but so long as there are RBs going early, you can be damn sure our staff isn't selling them on being a late rounder or a UDFA.

Or just being ironic or self-trolling. I am sure there is some kid out there with a 'Know Ragrets!' tat.

Conference games are just worth more. Go read the old realignment thread on the Shag. ESPN isn't paying a premium for some unknown commodity. OOC game contracts can be broken so there is less value in them. (A conference-level scheduling arrangement would add value because the games would be guaranteed and the pool of opponents would be established.) It is what it is, so until the conference moves to 8 games and makes more money relative to its current position among the other leagues, you are just spilling bits on the internet.

We have already been through this exercise. More money will do over expansion, so it's a moot point. (Though I believe AFA has already said they have no interest in being in a P5 conference.) Until there are 2 teams that pay for themselves across the board on the media side, the Big 12 is unlikely to expand.

OU will make whatever claims fit the moment if they decide to leave. Everyone who left the Big 12 used the LHN as a rearguard excuse, even though its existence post-dated everyone's decision to leave. The majority of college football fans (and the media) believe that lie. You think anyone is going to give OU's excuses a thorough going over after they have already decided to leave? We all know the ultimate reason will be the same as it was when the other teams left, money and exposure. OU will make more money in the Big 10 or SEC and will get their share of a conference network. The Big 12 can do nothing to overcome either. If OU stays, it will likely be because of their dominant competitive position in the Big 12 or because of politics over leaving OSU in the cold. I guess there is still the slight possibility that a conference network or a media deal, like the ideas noted above with the Pac, which could sweeten the pot enough to keep them in the fold. Unfortunately, I still lean towards them wanting to leave. 8 conference games are worth less than 9. It is just a fact. Unless that 9th game is replaced with a set of guaranteed winners, those OOC games aren't worth as much. I imagine the powerbrokers at OU don't give a damn about SOS and how the rest of the conference gets an almost assured loss against OU because of the round robin. OU would love to have only 8 conference games so they can add a better home game every other year, but they lose more money on the TV contract by losing the guaranteed conference games. If 8 games were a realistic option it would have already happened, just like expansion would have already happened if it were financially realistic. The conference loses money either way and therefore no one in the Big 12 is interested in change.

I think we see the agenda here, no? How many account names have you burned here? BYU just isn't a good enough product to move the needle, especially when they really have to bring in enough value to cover for a second, even weaker product. Agreed. Unfortunately, I just think OU is lining things up to leave. Pushing the latest, failed expansion process was just another way for them to add an excuse on their reasons for leaving. If we add, then OU knows the new TV contracts would suck and that no one would have any interest in a Big 12 network just because we added some weak pretenders. If we didn't add, then they can claim the rest of the conference is against them or that they want to get away from the round-robin/CCG set up, which the Big 12 can't do away with unless they sacrifice the quality of play or the value of their media deal.

I think we have just found out Katfid's day job!

I am not defending OU here. I am saying their casus belli has been well-tread in public already. Unless their new leadership has done a flip-flop, OU has been the most vocal in finding issues with the Big 12 since the last teams left and they are the last team to publicly try to leave the conference. I don't give a damn about guessing whether or not OU is going to fail if and when they move. I'll save that for when it happens, but I am sure OU has looked at the evidence themselves and will factor that in when it comes decision time. I am merely saying OU's reasons for moving are already out there for public consumption and the Big 12 has little in their arsenal to fix those issues. Control and power within a conference are likely somewhat overrated, unless you are in a dire position. OU has leverage in the Big 12 but only because the conference dies without them. The problem is that the Big 12 has very little to give to fix that. (UT could drop the LHN or try to get it turned in to a Big 12 network, but the Big 12 has no control over that and even Texas has to get ESPN on board.) Also, just because they publicly say a vote was unanimous doesn't mean that any school necessarily wanted to vote that way. I think OU would have been happy to expand now and then use the subsequent weak media deal as another reason to leave.

They want a national presence for their T3 content. They have other programs than football and they are stuck on a regional network while the Big 10, SEC, and soon the ACC are getting their programs a national audience.

You make it sound like these conferences are engaged in constant internal warfare! There is very little that goes on that requires power plays of any sort. Unless you have evidence otherwise. OU is going to vote with Bama or Ohio State with common cause on most issues. OU and UT have power in the Big 12, but it isn't absolute. UT lost their bid to build a conference network. OU has pushed expansion and been shot down every time. OU wanted Louisville and got stuck with TCU instead. A 16-team super conference is likely going to be much, much more stable than the Big 12.

No more than what they got when they were in the Big 12. Ultimately, they get more money to be mediocre in the SEC. OU will look at it as a chance to keep winning while getting more money and exposure. I am sure they see they don't have anything in common with aggy. Nebraska might be the better test case, but Nebraska's downfall preceded their move to the Big 10 and was predicated on changes that actually had little to do with the Big 12 or Big 10.

And as far as control goes, I would say OU has way more in common with the leaders of either the Big 10 or SEC than with the teams in the Big 12. Outside of Michigan, which is the only school who takes the football/academics divide more seriously than we do, the power schools are more about greasing the wheels of success for themselves than academics or real conference equity.

Yep, and if the Big 12 is killed off, they have even less competition for recruits. Sure Texas and aggy are always going to be there as local options for the handful of truly elite guys, but it makes getting your pick from the Top 50 in Texas all the easier with no other P5 programs in the vicinity. If the Big 12 dies, then the playoffs start by winning your division. Do you think OU is scared of the shitty Big 10 West? The SEC West would likely see Bama move east with Auburn. Do you think OU is afraid to compete in a division with aggy, LSU, Missouri, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss St, and either us or Okla State?

I think the problem moving ahead is that OU has perhaps the most power, because they are willing (and perhaps eager) to move and they likely have takers. Adding BYU and Boise aren't going to keep OU happy. Adding those teams will mean less money and no one in the conference seems interested in losing money. It is an exercise we have already gone through. Those adds also won't get OU's T3 content a national audience, which is something they greatly desire. While I think OU would love to get down to 8 games, the decline in money makes the Big 12 less competitive than their other options. OU can pull up stakes and go to the SEC or Big 10 and get everything they can't get from the Big 12 (especially if we move with them). I think OU to the Pac has finally died with the Pac's bad media moves. To make it viable would require a whole lot of breaking and rebuilding that just doesn't seem likely. The Big 12 sell to OU might be improved though with a Pac media relationship of a one-game-per-team deal. It would give them some permanent presence in one of their prime recruiting territories and it makes the TV deal more valuable with guaranteed match ups. If the T1/2 deal is still competitive and OU needs an unwilling UT to move with them (like when they tried to make a unilateral move out west last time) or they can't leverage OSU into a move with them, that may be enough to hold the current Big 12 together. If it could include a T3 network with national reach, that could seal the deal, but it is unlikely. I think either the Big 10 or SEC takes the risk of offering a solo spot to OU, thereby effectively killing the Big 12. The question then becomes do we move immediately or do we stay in a lame-duck Big 12 to see out the end of the LHN contract and then pick our spot.

On the old site, didn't they lock down a recruiting thread one year because it had gotten too big and then opened up one just for signing day? I think some were pissed that part of the thread might not make it to Classics.

Running out of time is something aggy pulls off all the time. Winning 10 games isn't. #advantageaggy

I would be curious what the numbers would look like over a 5 year period. I was under the impression that the ranking sites have a quota system, where states like Texas, Florida, and Cali will have between, say, 35-40 recruits in a Top 300 (or 30-35 in a Top 247). Basically, you want to cover all your major fan bases and keep them happy, so the numbers of elite ranked players is fairly stable in the big college football states.