Billy!!
Now that Oklahoma and Texas are in the SEC, I want the SEC to be the best conference in every sport. Things like the playoff berths, those final spots in the field and the benefit of seeding, I want the SEC to be thought of as the best conference. I no longer care how any of them fare in the postseason for that carryover effect.
The SEC is going to be fine in baseball forever. I think it's going to be the SEC and the Big Ten for perpetuity in football. In basketball, as long as they have the caliber of coaching they have now, and NIL is where it's at, and with conference realignment, I don't think they'll typically get as many in the NCAA Tournament as they did this year.
For me, as an Aggie, it was way less about SEC pride. I want the SEC to dominate the bowl games. I want them to dominate the non-conference matchups in the regular season. I want them to be lightyears ahead of the Big 12 in baseball so that when it comes down to whether or not Texas A&M or Texas were going to host a super regional, playing in that league would give them that little bit of extra in terms of perception.
Being in the SEC was a massive recruiting advantage over Texas and Oklahoma. Did Texas A&M capitalize on that advantage? No. Clearly, they did not. It is an awful failure that in that amount of time when Texas was going through the end of Mack Brown, Charlie Strong and Tom Herman, and the first couple of years of Steve Sarkisian, which were not good. Texas went 5-7 with a six-game losing streak, and then I think they went 7-6 in Sarkisian’s first two years. A couple of years of Sarkisian, a whole tenure of Herman, a whole tenure of Strong and the last couple of years of Mack, and the Aggies couldn't capitalize.
A&M was in the SEC in 2012. They couldn't build on it in 2013. Once or twice, they had a chance to be special. Texas is your arch-rival in recruiting. Always has been. Always will be. They were down, and you were almost over the mountain top after that first year in the conference. The beatdown you put on Bob Stoops and Oklahoma. We could talk all day about how close they were and why they didn't get there. With Kyler Murray and all these different things right up until what you thought Conner Weigman could be. You hired Jimbo Fisher and went all in. It felt like he almost got it there. A&M finished No. 4 in the country and followed that up with the No. 1 class of all time. Fisher was almost there. Kevin Sumlin was almost there. They couldn't follow up the great year with another great one. They were both 8-4, but Fisher's felt closer because you had that win over Alabama, and then you beat Auburn.
The point is you couldn't capitalize, and now here we are. You had your foot on the neck of your biggest rival. You had a massive advantage in terms of recruiting. It played out that way, but you couldn't capitalize on it, and that's killer. It was a missed opportunity. You can't do anything about that now. You can just go forward with it.
When you look at Georgia, Texas and Ole Miss and what they lost, it's fair to ask how do they replace that and still go forward? Texas with Arch Manning, everyone in Austin is going to tell me, "He promised to stay four years." I don't know about that. I know he'll make enough money, but if he has the year you think he's going to have, he's going to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. Money is not the deal for him or that family, is what I've been told. If they have him for maybe one year, they want Longhorn football to take a step forward. That step forward means winning the SEC and playing for a national title. That's it. Anything else is a big step back. If you go 9-3, it's a big step back. If you go 10-2, don't play in Atlanta and lose the first round of the playoffs, that's a big step back.
A&M's step forward has to be 9-3. Play truly meaningful games in November. We got away from realizing it was year one because of how good they started. They lost in the final two minutes to a team that played for the national title. You played the national title game loser to the last two minutes. Nobody wants an award for that, but that was your only loss in the first eight games.
SEC Mike texted me, and he had Bobby Burton on. He asked him, "How much money did Texas spend on its football roster last season?" Bobby was quoted by SEC Mike as saying, "A lot. Definitely north of $25 million." We've heard the same thing about Ohio State. I'll be safe and say A&M was operating at probably $10 million-ish below those teams. You know we can throw Oregon in there.
I'm sure a lot of teams would have loved to be operating where A&M was last year. Most of college football would love to be there. This year, a lot more will be there because of this athletic department having the house settlement, which will force the athletic departments to pay. If you can do the collective and that thing, a lot of these schools are going to jump up even further. Regardless of that gap, A&M is between that five and 10 range in terms of the amount on the roster.
North of $25 million has to be eye-opening. There is nothing wrong with it. When I am ranking coaches, and I don't have Steve Sarkisian, he's just on the fringe of the top five. Everyone tells me Ryan Day is not a good coach. He's got the best roster money can buy. So does Texas. So does Oregon. Texas A&M is trying to, and they have one of the best. You still have to hit on your evaluations, and you still have to develop.
Sarkisian can go 5-7, and go sign guys like Quinn Ewers, CJ Baxter, Kelvin Banks Jr. and all of these NFL guys because you had the level of unlimited checkbook that no one else had. That's legal. You're not doing anything wrong, but I don't think he does any of this without having the best roster money can buy. If you don't think Elko is actively trying to get the best roster money can buy, it's not an insult. It's a reality. I think Elko and the group right now have done a tremendous job of taking NIL from here to here.
Ohio State and Texas have the best roster money can buy, but they're also homegrown teams for the most part. That's what Elko wants to do here in College Station. There's no better way to get guys in your program at a high level than to figure out who can do what and make sure you keep the guys who are worth keeping. That's what they did this year. That's the most important thing in the portal in Elko's mind, and I think that's the most important thing when you look at the teams who made deep runs in the playoffs this year.
I like Elko's approach. I like where A&M's NIL is going, but that $25 million number is what it is. It's no secret. That's why Burton had no problem saying it. In the SEC, I think you have to have both. You have to be able to go out and pay for and get the best players and pay and keep your really good players because everyone is trying to poach them. You have to be able to develop. That's actually the part I feel best about with Elko. I think he's laser-focused on developing, keeping the guys so they can develop and keeping the guys from leaving, who are proven