re: Gator Tailgating opinion of College Station/A&M

I know a guy who went to A&M undergrad and UF for grad. He tells me that CS and Gainesville are "fairly indistinguishable". His words.

I don't know or care, but unless Gainesville is within 1 hour of white-sand beaches, the two towns are no different.

Gravy, I think we've got a buddy in common.

bullshite.

Ask Nebraska fans.

When was the last time you went to A&M to tailgate? It is true that the last time A&M played LSU the tailgating scene sucked. Really it has all grown in the last 10 years after Byrne became AD. The last couple years it has started to get pretty epic. Aggies are stupid about our traditions and the rule is "if you do it twice it is now a tradition". In the last few years tailgating has truly become a "tradition" and that means being Aggies and Texans everything has to be bigger and better so we are quickly getting out of control about it.

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not taking anything away from the aggies because yes its a good atmosphere and it will be a good fit in the SEC. one thing i disagree on is the tailgating. you have to remember this is their first ever SEC game so they still have the "we're happy to be here and everyone is welcome" attitude so of course they were overly nice to UF fans.

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You have to remember that we have a lot more people, based on that fact alone we are better than Mizzou, Arky, Miss State, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina.

Bottom half is kind of sketchy. Bottom half between Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Florida, Ole Miss, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas A&M? Probably, but after LSU and Ole Miss, there is probably a lot of parity in the tailgating from the remaining schools.

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I didn't, but I highly doubt Gainesville=CS.

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BCS Metro-212k and growing FAST.
Gainesville Metro-260k
Starkville Metro-29k

I drove through Gainesville this Summer while on a roadie and went through campus. The towns have a lot of the same feel. Large campus settings with a full service town built around it. I was actually surprised how much Gainesville is kind of out of the way from everything. Not so far that it is too far but it's not right by the coast or just outside of a major city which is similar to BCS. The biggest difference I noticed is the trees are much bigger and plentiful and everything is flat so you can't really see the campus easily. You can see everything laid out a lot more in College Station but that also means you see more concrete, we just don't get as much rain as you folks so trees don't normally get that big without help. Actually if you go back to the early stages of re-alignment Loftin (A&M Pres) has consistently spoken about his relationship with Manchin and how that influenced him, including how they always sat together at AAU meetings. Both schools also put a big emphasis on the "minor sports" and are consistent Top 10 Directors Cup schools.

I have nothing against MSU but they have little in common with A&M other than colors and an Ag history. A&M is just a much bigger and richer school that is 60 miles from Houston and within 3 hours of all the big Texas Metros.

Texas folks will always act as though it is still 1960 though and A&M is an all male military college that is filled with farmers. That's fine, we act like they are all a bunch of rich kids and gay guys but the truth is they have more than their share of folks that are as redneck as can be but both schools really are mostly suburban upper middle class kids.

UTx and A&M's student bodies are almost identical: 1/3 engineering nerds, 1/3 business douches, and 1/3 everything else. UTx is just more fratty/cares about liberal arts. In terms of UF, I've heard Gainesville is effectively the same as CS, but I have no first-hand experience. Has UF been a huge school for a long time? That probably influences the tailgating scene more than anything (A&M is just now reaping the benefits of having a large enrollment).

tu is very asian and international. I don't have their demographics numbers, but I've always felt that compounded years over years either asians were going to massively love college football, or their fan base was going to become 100% tshirt fans.

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you have to remember this is their first ever SEC game so they still have the "we're happy to be here and everyone is welcome" attitude so of course they were overly nice to UF fans.

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Sorry, can't go with you on that one. A&M has long been regarded as having a very hospitable fanbase. This was hardly a one-off, glad to be in the SEC sort of thing.