Long time lurker but just created my account today. Long post so if you don’t care enough to read it stop now don’t waste anyone’s time.

Point in the title - disappointing season all together for A&M so we need good PR now more than ever. Unfortunately for us there really isn’t any. Nothing good to tell y’all about our coaching or anything else that might help out football team - but there are 3 myths that can be dispelled. I do not expect this to be received well at all by most of y’all.

Before I go into it I’ll admit I’m biased. I graduated from A&M, met my wife at A&M, found Christ at A&M (Pastor Ben Stuart who led Breakaway Ministries at A&M and is now the lead pastor at Passion City DC is awesome), and my education and connection to A&M has definitely helped me advance my career. I know many in real life don’t have the lack of respect for A&M that most do on this board (though I know some do) and I know it’s not all serious but for the sake of it here are 3 myths about Texas A&M.

Myth #1: Texas A&M is a faux military school.

“Give me an Army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle... Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war.” ? George S. Patton Jr

Texas A&M has 8 Medal of Honor recipients that have gone through our University. The other 13 SEC schools combined have 8 Medal of Honor Recipients.

For 61% of our history the Corps of Cadets was not optional - it was mandatory (not made voluntary until 1965 and until then the vast majority of Corps members went into the military).

More personally - My Dad received an appointment to the Air Force Academy and he traded his appointment for a full scholarship to Texas A&M via participation in the Corps / Subsequent military service.

There’s a lot of history there. If anything we’ve gone away from it but the Corps is a legitimate program and the history is there to back it up.

Myth #2 - Texas A&am is in the middle of nowhere.

There are 9.8 Million people within a 90 mile radius of Kyle Field. For reference - there are more people living within 90 miles of Kyle Field than every other entire state with an SEC school in it outside of Florida and Georgia (only 10.8 M). Also, that’s twice the population of the entire State of the Alabama, over three times the population of the entire State of Mississippi. And I’m not strategically drawing the radius so I can capture the entirety of the Houston and Austin Metro (120 mile radius would be 12 Million people - bigger than every other SEC State except Florida). Bottom line is it is not in the middle of nowhere - at least not when compared to other SEC schools.

You could argue that the data above is misleading because I’m capturing a portion of the Austin and Houston Metros (which is still relevant to the argument that 2 major metro areas are within that range in proximity) so just to take College Station itself (not Bryan as well to make it fair because I know other College towns also have neighboring cities that add to their micropolitan / metropolitan area)

College Station Is Bigger than -

Tuscaloosa
Oxford
Starkville
Fayetteville
Auburn

Smaller than but at least 75% of the population of Colombia (Missouri and SC), Gainesville, Knoxville, and Athens.

Now we can debate all day about the quality of the town/things to do/university/culture/feel whatever. Those are going to be matters of opinion (even if you disagree that they are matters of opinion). We’re the SEC - our schools aren’t located in downtown Los Angeles.

Myth #3 - the absolute only reason a 5 star recruit would go to A&M is because they’re getting paid the most there.

I expect some pushback here and honestly this might be the only myth that I would probably just give up on if you argued with me enough. A&M isn’t one of the “cool” schools - as evidence from our midnight yell videos this year. And we obviously haven’t had much success on the football field.

With that being said - the following are some reason (other than cash) why some major recruits might choose A&M -

Largest Stadium in the SEC
High end facilities
4th best Academics in the SEC (US News but I get that can be a weak ranking) (3rd best out of the public schools - true that not everyone cares)
Proximity to major metropolitan areas (many of which are home to recruits)
Resources (even if they’ve been used unwisely).
Aggie Network (hard to measure but has continually be there for me throughout my life).

Chance to do something that hasn’t been done since pre ww2? (Okay I’ll admit that’s weak).

Alright I’m done. I’ll let y’all hate now.

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