re: Not a troll...serious question for those of us who weren't around back then

As someone who started watching college football in the early 2000s, I was never really worried about playing A&M. I was much more concerned about Texas Tech during those years. A&M's move to the SEC provided them with increased brand recognition, monetary assets, and recruiting tools, which allowed them to have some competitive years in the SEC. However, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference this year, it will be interesting to see how it affects A&M. I say this as someone from Texas, whose family is pretty evenly split between Aggies and Longhorns. Most of the Aggies grew up as Longhorn fans, though.