re: "College football's top 24 jobs" according to ESPN and fellow coaches..

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These resources your team is relying on were there in the past just under utilized.

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Not even close.

Donations.
Facilities.
TV exposure.
Marketing.

To name but a few, each are critical pieces of the puzzle that have only just started to come together.

Not sure why you're hellbent on making the opposite argument, but that's your call.

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Why?

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Uh, pretty much because - look at your history. A decent last 10 years and a good last 3 doesn't add up to a top 20 job. That's why!

I think the list is based on much more than just history alone... otherwise many of the schools in the top 20 wouldn't be there. Not just SC.

I think some are forgetting the fact that prior to the 1970s, A&M was a smaller enrollment, all male, military college. Definitely not the same university as it has become tody. Enrollment, alumni base, budget, etc, so to argue that the past = the present would not be an apples to apples comparison as compared to many state institutions in the SEC

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Oh yeah I am mad. Not sure about what but seems to make you feel better.

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It seems as though you are taking a widely held opinion that my alma mater is a top 15 program personally. Doesn't make me feel better, but I do find it amusing. Are you even an alum? Do you have anything tangible at stake?

Agreed. I think A&M is ranked highly for what it is "becoming". We can see the tangible evidence for A&M becoming a destination job.

I think SC is ranked in the top 20 for what it has "potential to become"... Not quite there yet, but a massive improvement with Spurrier and an even better gig with the right coaching hire post-Spurrier.

double post

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Random guess ??

Below the SEC Big 6
Above the SEC little 8

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There's a little problem w/ your math...

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I was responding to an earlier poster justifying aTm's relevance. And yes it is about the past. These resources your team is relying on were there in the past just under utilized. With the exception of being a part of the SEC. So regards to the topic of the OP or the link in the OP, I see nothing to demonstrate that aTm is in the best position now or will be in the future. Unless being in the SEC currently is the Mecca of coaching.

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A&M didn't remotely have the resources in the past it does now. For instance when my Dad graduated in Bear Bryan't last year he had about 1000 folks in his class of that were all male and 95% were going in the military. This year A&M will graduated about 13k with less than 5% in the Corps of Cadets. A&M often had 1/2 the scholarship players of our rivals in the 50's and '60s and played buyout games with LSU in Baton Rouge. We didn't even become a University until the '60s, prior to that we were "The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas" but by 2001 we joined the AAU and now we are the largest research University in the Southwest and largest in the SEC region. From the early '70s to the mid '80s A&M was the fastest growing college in the US going from about 10k students to 45k in about 15 years. Only in the last few years have those large classes hit prime donor age.

In spite of all of that, A&M won 18 Conference Titles and is a Top 15 All Time program. In the '80s through to the mid 90's we dominated, at one point winning 6 Conference Titles in 8 years and winning 90% of our home games (we lost 1 in my 4 years at A&M). We fell asleep at the wheel in the late '90s by letting our facilities go to hell and the combined hirings of Mack at Texas and Stoops at OU radically changing the landscape. We compounded that by making a horrific hire in Fran, who at the time was seen as the hottest coach in the US and of course was a complete disaster. So we kept building and investing and eventually made the SEC move.

We have never had facilities like we do now. Kyle has never been anything like it is going to be and we have never been in a place where we sold out a 102k stadium prior to the season starting. We've never had the volume of alumni support we have now. We have never been able to sell the SEC as the best conference to play in against playing in the Big 12 where our other Texas competition is floundering. The State of Texas has become an even bigger football factory than in the past and we are sitting on top.

So to act as though "A&M has always had those resources and hasn't utilized them" is at best naive and at worst moronic as a statement.

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These resources have been around for a while

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We just started putting big $ into the program. Are you kidding me. Our upgrades have all come in the last 3 years other than the indoor practice facility.

This list is current job. You're a total idiot if you think a coach wouldn't take what A&M is offering.