re: Did joining the SEC really help A&M as much as people say?

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I still refuse to rewatch any part of that game and that play in particular.

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You know you take sports too seriously when you can't do that. Can't even think about that night without it being painful. The 2012 season was EXACTLY the salve our program and fanbase needed to start to heal that wound. Sounds hyperbolic, but it's the damn truth.

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You don't understand--our secondary was HORRIBLE. Like, consistently giving up 3rd and 15-20+ horrible. The A&M secondary you saw this year was light years ahead under DC Mark Snyder than they were under our former DC DeRuyter. Not to toot our own horn, but unless you'd followed our program, it's really hard to grasp just how dramatic our overall team improvement was from '11 to '12, and the new coaching staff was HUGE in bringing about that change.

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I thought we were talking about 2012.

While i agree for the most part. I just dont think you can go 12-0 and have to rely on purely out scoring week in and week out. Somewhere down the line you would need your d to make a stop and i just dont have confidence that this years secondary could have done that in a pass dominant conference

Biggest reason it helped us is year one was our defensive personnel being used to pass happy, the having to be run heavy. We probably had the most versatility scheme/experience wise of any team team in the country. Making the Belldozer our bitch, to picking off AJ McCryon twice are two examples of such. Our defensive guys had experience in both the best pass and the best run leagues. No other team outside of Mizzou could say that, but Mizzou had no talent.

Otherwise, the only thing you can really point to is that iron sharpens iron. It's only one year. Mocing forward the advantages are obvious and numerous.

We had some talent, we just couldn't put the points on the board with our QB being hurt constantly.

Weren't going to be world killers, which most wouldn't admit at the begining, but this season could have gone the other way (bowl game, couple decent wins) easily.

That being said, I still stand behind my initial statements. aTm and Mizzou are Big 12 teams playing in the SEC for the last and the next 1-2 years until the SEC effect starts coming into play. For Mizzou, it will likely take a new coach, but I'm sure aTm is in a similar situation as it currently is if the move hadn't happened.

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This seems to be a point of contention among aTm fans.

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Let's put it this way, then: the moment A&M's move to the SEC became official, the 2011 season became an unofficial audition for Coach Sherman and his staff. They entered the season ranked in the preseason top 10 coming off a great 2010 campaign. If they had capitalized on that, they're most likely still here--no one could justify firing that staff if, say, they'd tied for the big 12 title.

Every time they stubbed their toe in 2011 was a nail in the coffin, though. And, at the risk of mixing my metaphors, the way in which the texas game was lost was the straw that broke the camel's back. Sherman's reluctance to embrace the SEC move could have been overlooked. His team's 2011 performances were the harbinger of change, IMO.

The SEC helped A&M a ton. Our brand was a mess before the move, but now it is much clearer.

Without playing Bama and winning JFF doesn't win the Heisman and we don't get a top ten class.

We are building a program not a one hit wonder, which we could never do in the Big 12.

I mean look at OSU and their recruiting class a year after almost going to the title game. Just winning the Big 12 isn't enough.

Well, they lost to the two best teams they played this past year, but the future is pretty bright.

What the SEC really did for TAMU this year was exposure. In the past you could not find a TAMU game on the TV as the content not chewed up by Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas was just not there. This season TAMU could be found early on on TV even before the Johnny Football thing really got going. SEC media exposure shines on all SEC teams and that really helped TAMU.

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getting rid of sherman, the old man with no charisma, and adding sumlin was huge and would have been just as huge in teh big 12. ditto with jff. jff was the luckiest thing to ever happen to a&m, the guy was spurned by tejas. meanwhile, mack brown has worn his welcome out in many high school recruits minds.

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You're not giving A&M enough credit here. I won't say Johnny would've attended A&M had Mack offered him as a QB, but I expected great things from him after watching him tear it up in HS. The kid was unstoppable, so I'd say plenty programs were dumb for not giving him more attention.

I'm not sure any team lately has experienced the kick in the nuts the 2011 season was, and it motivated the players to not have a repeat performance. It was one unbelievable choke job after the next, which is why Sherman was canned - not because of the loss to the horns. That's partly why Aggies seem so overzealous on here. It has been night and day between the two seasons.

Plenty Ags and A&M fans had their eye on Sumlin, myself included, since he left 10 years ago, and thankfully certain alumni had the pull to get him hired before it was too late. The man knows how to assemble and manage a staff, and bringing a member of the Wrecking Crew to whip the boys into shape was the biggest change in the team's performance this year.

The SEC has helped A&M, that's for certain. I think the main ways it has helped is by re-energizing the fanbase and increasing revenue through ticket and merchandise sales, as well as just making the players tougher, even in a "down" year by normal SEC West standards. The arrogance shown by SEC folks at the media days provided plenty motivation as well, so thanks for that. People forget that until just a few years ago, the Big 12 South was consistently one of the toughest divisions to win in CFB.

I left out the obvious part about recruiting, which has been mentioned plenty. Before, A&M was just another fish in big but crowded pond and nothing to set itself apart on the trail while being surrounded by the likes of Texas, OU, LSU, etc. That was the biggest change, and we'll see how well it pays off starting this season.