re: First to win an SEC title? USC or aTm

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That probably has more to do with SC recruiting the same areas/teams/talent pool that Alabama does. I would like to see the numbers on players with both SC and LSU offers, that sounds like a bigger overlap of recruiting territory. You also have to figure that A&M has more talent in close proximity to recruit from, the most likely head to head LSU to A&M offer is going to be to a kid in Louisiana and not halfway between LA and SC, etc.

Again, if Spurrier wins another SEC championship at SC, that means he will be bucking a strong trend: either winning a title after not posting a 10 win season within his first four years at that institution (first for any coach in BCS era), or ending the SEC run of national championships.

Now, of course, a likely result is Spurrier retires to drink Coors topless on his boat, and a hot shot coach comes in and posts a 10+ win season with his roster along with some new hot recruits. That would be SC's best scenario for a title.

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Well done.

No doubt LSU and A&M overlap far more - and Bama and SCAR overlap far more. But your guy was the one that set the Saban/Miles standard, not me. FWIW Miles rarely has to leave the state of Louisiana to find enough talent to field a championship caliber team. When he does, it's usually Texas with the occasional Georgia or Florida prospect (and every once in awhile he'll steal one out of SC like Sam Montgomery), splattered about here and there.

The point of my post, in answer to DWB trying to school the rest of us SECers on how recruiting works, is that hell, he's right ... you gotta beat the big boys for the players. But for him to sit there and type that Sumlin was going to out-recruit Spurrier head-to-head against Saban and Miles ... the notion is beyond ridiculous.

And the other obvious contention that no A&M fan seems willing to accept is simply this ... forget about state borders. That is not how recruiting territory is defined. It never has been. Recruiting territories are defined by distances, radius', from a given school. And then there are connections and relationships and those have no boundaries. So why is the discussion continuing to be about the size of Texas, or the talent located within the boundaries of Texas? And then, how, suddenly, is Kevin Sumlin a bigger name, a more respected coach, than Steve Spurrier?

Realize, none of these issues were raised by Gamecock fans - these are all claims set-forth by aTm fans with regard to the original question that was posed ... who will win the SEC title first?

Hell, I think I stayed-out of it until page 8 simply because it is a pie-in-the-sky question. But then you keep seeing these incredulous claims by Aggie fans about this and that and clearly, they don't know jack.

I'm beginning to understand the whole "battered aggie syndrome" thing.

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And the other obvious contention that no A&M fan seems willing to accept is simply this ... forget about state borders. That is not how recruiting territory is defined. It never has been. Recruiting territories are defined by distances, radius', from a given school. And then there are connections and relationships and those have no boundaries. So why is the discussion continuing to be about the size of Texas, or the talent located within the boundaries of Texas?

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I get where you are coming from, but your perspective is also coming from a smaller state that forces you to recruit outside your borders. The big allure of A&M going to the SEC is that it FINALLY gives Texas kids a chance to stay at home and play the big-time schools on a national stage, something that has died in the Big 12. State pride is a big thing, especially in Texas, but also in LA. Let me know how many GREAT players Spurrier has gotten out of Louisiana that Miles REALLY wanted... the people come out of the woodwork to pressure the kid and his family to stay "home" and go to LSU.

A&M is closer to Shreveport than LSU, and we've gotten a fair amount of Louisiana players (and just plain students as far as that goes) when we have been good. I will concede that our worst years coincided with being locked out of LA recruiting-wise.

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I get where you are coming from, but your perspective is also coming from a smaller state that forces you to recruit outside your borders. The big allure of A&M going to the SEC is that it FINALLY gives Texas kids a chance to stay at home and play the big-time schools on a national stage, something that has died in the Big 12. State pride is a big thing, especially in Texas, but also in LA. Let me know how many GREAT players Spurrier has gotten out of Louisiana that Miles REALLY wanted... the people come out of the woodwork to pressure the kid and his family to stay "home" and go to LSU.

A&M is closer to Shreveport than LSU, and we've gotten a fair amount of Louisiana players (and just plain students as far as that goes) when we have been good. I will concede that our worst years coincided with being locked out of LA recruiting-wise.

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Makes total sense and I believe you whole-heartedly because I know you are typing the truth. But bear with me for a moment because, if you will, this is about to get real simple.

Here, allow me to do it this way and perhaps I'll do a better job of illustrating my point in the process. Here we go ...

I get where you are coming from, but your perspective is also coming from a larger state that allows you to recruit within your borders (for the most part). The big allure of SCAR joining the SEC twenty-two years ago was that it FINALLY gave SC kids (who had previously signed with Georgia, Bama and Auburn on a yearly basis) a chance to stay at home and play the big-time schools on a national stage, something that had died among independents in the late 80s. State pride is a big thing in SC - we practically invented it and our history shows as much, but also in GA and NC who SC shares large borders with. Let me know how many GREAT players Mac Brown or Kevin Sumlin or Les Miles or Nick Saban has gotten out of South Carolina lately ... the people around here come out of the woodwork to pressure the kids and their families to stay "home" and go to either SC or Clemson.

SCAR is closer to Augusta than UGA and closer to Charlotte and all of Western NC than UNC, and we've gotten a fair amount of Georgia players (more than Georgia last year for example) when we have been good. I will concede that our worst years coincided with being locked out of Georgia recruiting-wise. While many of our most famous players were Georgia born and bred ... for instance, Heisman winner George Rogers, as well as Sterling Sharpe and many many others. So, you see, us reaching beyond our state boundaries is not a new thing, but it was greatly bolstered when we joined the SEC (just like it will be for you), and especially when Holtz and Spurrier came on-board.

Lastly, consider this if you will. This area (say a 300 mile radius around Columbia, SC), that I am referring to, is every bit as rich in big time five star talent as the same square mileage in the state of Texas (or a three hundred mile radius around College Station), and over into Shreveport ... if not moreso. I would be willing to wager a bet that more big time talent comes out of this circle than A&M's. Especially high 4 star and 5 star talent. Or, if not that, definitely more 5 stars imho, but I may be wrong.

Anyways, I guess we're never going to agree that things are pretty much even on all fronts - but that is my main point, my main endeavor I've been trying to communicate in this thread once I jumped-in and got involved.

Did anyone see how TAM destroyed Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. Reminded me of the way LSU destroyed Miami in some bowl in Atlanta before we realized Miami was a hollow shell of itself.

TAM has the coaching staff, they have the QB, and with the SEC, they are in the process of building the top recruiting program in Texas. If Sumlin can beat Bama for the second time in a row this year, they will have arrived and will probably win the SEC West.

The Aggies are probably a few years away from being on the same level with Bama and LSU talent wise, but they are already even with Florida, Georgia, and ahead of S.C in overall talent.

Most of the Blue Chip Texas talent who want to play in the SEC will be Aggies in the future.

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I thought yall were set up to get more talent than USC... didn't realize yall already had it

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Sorry, I am not from Texas. But the SEC does interest me on a talent level.

If you haven't won an SEC championship in two decades, why now?

Texas produces 5 times the number of Blue-Chip high school talent as your state. There might me a lot of Blue-Chip talent within your grasp, but something has been stopping your Gamecocks from grabbing it. What do you think that is?

Take a look at how many 4-star recruits TAM got last year 15, which is almost twice the number of your Gamecocks 8.

Look at the perennial powers in the SEC like Bama and LSU, which averages twice the number of 4+stars to 3-stars. Your recruiting program needs to flip your present ratio of twice the number of 3-stars to 4+stars. Within those 4+ should be a couple of 5 stars every year on average. I only use rivals for consistency sake.

Check out the top 5 or 6 recruiting classes every year, and you will see they average twice the number of 4+ commitments to 3 star commitments. And when your recruiting program can do that over 4 or 5 years, you become a perennial college football power if you can coach them to win the big games.

The biggest advantage S.C. has against TAM in being the first to win the SEC is the lack of Bama or LSU in the East.

Chances are, if TAM were in the East instead of Missouri, the Aggies would have won the East last year.

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2013... Texas A&M.

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More likely than anyone on this board wants to admit.

A&M's going to win one this fall, so the answer is A&M, duh.

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Lastly, consider this if you will. This area (say a 300 mile radius around Columbia, SC), that I am referring to, is every bit as rich in big time five star talent as the same square mileage in the state of Texas (or a three hundred mile radius around College Station), and over into Shreveport ... if not moreso. I would be willing to wager a bet that more big time talent comes out of this circle than A&M's. Especially high 4 star and 5 star talent. Or, if not that, definitely more 5 stars imho, but I may be wrong.

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college station/texas a&m is 100 miles to houston with a population of 6 million people..

college station/texas a&m is 180 miles to dallas w/ population of 2.4 million

college station/texas a&m to San Antonio is 180 miles w/ population of 2.8 million

There's 11 million+ people within a 300 miles radius of texas a&m..the entire state population of south carolina is 4.5 million people...I think the odds are greater find 5 star talent at a&m within your defined 300 mile radius..

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Even the comment about them being even with Florida and Georgia - well, it just goes to show you ...

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This comment was made by an Ohio State fan. You've been staring at the keyboard for too long, old man.

To answer your question, Ryan Tannehill was the eighth pick of the draft. Gilmore and Ingram went at #10 and #18, respectively.

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Don't care that its not in South Carolina, the argument that there isn't talent around our campus is fricking ridiculous.

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Who made this argument? I think scrooster is arguing with himself.

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college station/texas a&m is 100 miles to houston with a population of 6 million people..

college station/texas a&m is 180 miles to dallas w/ population of 2.4 million

college station/texas a&m to San Antonio is 180 miles w/ population of 2.8 million

There's 11 million+ people within a 300 miles radius of texas a&m..the entire state population of south carolina is 4.5 million people...I think the odds are greater find 5 star talent at a&m within your defined 300 mile radius..

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Seriously? Seriously?

Let me ask you this.

How many 5 star athletes are there in the entire country in a given year?

Then, how many of those come out of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina as compared to TX and LA every year? And you can go back the past few years if you want, or how ever many years you care to try to support.

Then, how many players is one team allowed to sign in a given year? Maximum number of players according to NCAA bylaws? Better yet, total number of players on schollies at any one given time, how about that.

Answer those questions ... then go back and ask yourself what you just typed has to do with anything when it comes to A&M?

Is LSU going to quit recruiting that area? How about Arkansas? Texas? Baylor? TCU? Houston? Oklahoma?

It's the same deal with SCAR having to recruit against Florida, UGA, Ga Tech, Clemson, UNC, Auburn and Bama in this area. It's ALL THE SAME THING! A&M does not have a recruiting edge just because they are in Texas. Period. If that were the case they would have been a powerhouse before they ever joined the SEC.