I think this says everything about the state of our program:

We have two of the top 100 players in our roster this year. Both of them haven't played a snap for A&M (both new transfers).

Makes you wonder why we are paying so much for NIL, coaching salaries, facilities if we can't coach, attract and develop talent.

We seem to downgrade talent as we get top HS recruits but then the elite ones leave to go to a good program while the others become busts (likely more of a lack of coaching / development as you would think you would be able to get at least one internally developed top 100 player with all these top recruits we are supposedly landing...

State of Aggieland: spend hundreds of millions on facilities, NIL, etc but don't hire the right leaders/coaches/AD/Presidents/chancellors so nothing improves. Perhaps the problem is simply all these generals leading the university without business / academic leadership experience. Spending/wasting hundreds of millions (billions for military) without the intended results is definitely a big gov't trait we seemed to have embraced as our culture.

https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/two-texas-a-m-aggies-named-among-top-100-returning-players-in-college-football-01jmndwjc04p

It's a pro league now, HS recruiting is similar to a pro draft. The players can negotiate their pay and go from team to team where the money takes them. The new media deal should allow A&M to play that game, but quite frankly I no longer care at all.

Yet another argument for refusing to support Aggies that put in a lot of effort to represent us and complaining about everything. Pissing and moaning largely is meaningless as is superstition believing in curses.

If you think you are wasting your life on Aggie sports then it's insanity to keep doing the same thing. But most gooos who support their team only really are bothered that they have zero control over the outcomes when the do control the inputs and the support but would rather take zero responsibility for how their words and actions guarantee the outcomes they despise rather than despising everyone and everything.

Try grace instead. It truly is transformative but you have to repent first to appropriate it.

People still take SI seriously?

I saw SI and clicked the link thinking it was a swimsuit issue

Georgia only had two as well. The list tried to get a couple of players from every school.

We spend just enough to keep people around. Could we spend as much as Texas? Probably. Except we made 3x the profit they did this past season. There's three certainties in life. Death, taxes and that TAMU isn't gonna spend more money to make less money.

Maybe DOGE can spend an hour here and figure out how we can be so rich but come up so short?

It's bigger than the Jimbo deal IMO.

Ha! Great minds. lol

https://texags.com/forums/5/topics/3528597

No Leveon Moss? That's a joke of a list

Yet another bleeding vag post by OP

We have a very good LT in Zuhn, RB in Moss, corner in Lee, and safety in Brooks. Those are probably top 100 players in the nation. 3 of 4 are home grown.

Aggie Michael said:

---

I think this says everything about the state of our program:

We have two of the top 100 players in our roster this year. Both of them haven't played a snap for A&M (both new transfers).

Makes you wonder why we are paying so much for NIL, coaching salaries, facilities if we can't coach, attract and develop talent.

We seem to downgrade talent as we get top HS recruits but then the elite ones leave to go to a good program while the others become busts (likely more of a lack of coaching / development as you would think you would be able to get at least one internally developed top 100 player with all these top recruits we are supposedly landing...

State of Aggieland: spend hundreds of millions on facilities, NIL, etc but don't hire the right leaders/coaches/AD/Presidents/chancellors so nothing improves. Perhaps the problem is simply all these generals leading the university without business / academic leadership experience. Spending/wasting hundreds of millions (billions for military) without the intended results is definitely a big gov't trait we seemed to have embraced as our culture.

https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/two-texas-a-m-aggies-named-among-top-100-returning-players-in-college-football-01jmndwjc04p

---

I'm sure a lot of folks on here, and just in general don't care, but I can say I know for a fact I am not alone in this. I am amongst a growing group of alums, in our prime professional earning/giving period, who are just completely disconnected from everything A&M. It's not just A&M's doing, it's just a culmination of many things.

The state of college athletics with NIL and transfer portal has created a disgusting collegiate athletic landscape that I really don't want to have much to do with it at all. And I know there will be posters who say if you post on Texags then that sentiment is false, but it's not. For one, I've been posting on here for 20 years, and it's more than just Aggie football, and while I am sick of the college athletic fiasco, I do hold on to the tiniest thread of interest and this is one of the places that thread exists.

As for the school itself, bigger isn't always better. The school was huge when I was in school and it's twice that size now with seemingly no end in sight to the expansion. And the folks in charge all seem to be completely ok, if not spearheading this, and that's not what I want from my Alma mater. It waters down the effort put in to graduate from a fine institution of higher learning, it diminishes the college experience for those current and future students, and it dilutes the value of being an alum for all of us old Ags. I generally spend more time and money and effort and networking with my grad school Alma mater (SMU) than anything A&M related. I don't even wear my ring anymore. I have gotten to the point with the insane expansion, it has little significance anymore.

I hate that I have gotten this way, but I also know I'm not alone. My wife and I are both Aggies, but we in now way even slightly encourage our kids to want to go to A&M. Our oldest we are nudging towards Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas, SMU, and TCU without even mentioning A&M. If it's what she wants, we won't stop her from going, but we certainly never talk it up. And the main part of that is because the leadership of the school and athletic departments have completely lost sight, or never had the sight to begin with, of what made A&M special. What resides in College Station today is not the A&M that myself, my parents generation, or my grandparents generation think A&M is/was.

Climbing back down off my soapbox from cloud yelling.

AggieDub04 said:

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People still take SI seriously?

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More seriously than they take our football program

ccolley68 said:

---

I'm sure a lot of folks on here, and just in general don't care, but I can say I know for a fact I am not alone in this. I am amongst a growing group of alums, in our prime professional earning/giving period, who are just completely disconnected from everything A&M. It's not just A&M's doing, it's just a culmination of many things.

The state of college athletics with NIL and transfer portal has created a disgusting collegiate athletic landscape that I really don't want to have much to do with it at all. And I know there will be posters who say if you post on Texags then that sentiment is false, but it's not. For one, I've been posting on here for 20 years, and it's more than just Aggie football, and while I am sick of the college athletic fiasco, I do hold on to the tiniest thread of interest and this is one of the places that thread exists.

As for the school itself, bigger isn't always better. The school was huge when I was in school and it's twice that size now with seemingly no end in sight to the expansion. And the folks in charge all seem to be completely ok, if not spearheading this, and that's not what I want from my Alma mater. It waters down the effort put in to graduate from a fine institution of higher learning, it diminishes the college experience for those current and future students, and it dilutes the value of being an alum for all of us old Ags. I generally spend more time and money and effort and networking with my grad school Alma mater (SMU) than anything A&M related. I don't even wear my ring anymore. I have gotten to the point with the insane expansion, it has little significance anymore.

I hate that I have gotten this way, but I also know I'm not alone. My wife and I are both Aggies, but we in now way even slightly encourage our kids to want to go to A&M. Our oldest we are nudging towards Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas, SMU, and TCU without even mentioning A&M. If it's what she wants, we won't stop her from going, but we certainly never talk it up. And the main part of that is because the leadership of the school and athletic departments have completely lost sight, or never had the sight to begin with, of what made A&M special. What resides in College Station today is not the A&M that myself, my parents generation, or my grandparents generation think A&M is/was.

Climbing back down off my soapbox from cloud yelling.

---

Very well stated. I agree with every sentiment.


If I still had college age kids I wouldn't encourage A&M at all.

cecil77 said:

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It's a pro league now, HS recruiting is similar to a pro draft. The players can negotiate their pay and go from team to team where the money takes them. The new media deal should allow A&M to play that game, but quite frankly I no longer care at all.

---

Yup. All of the magic is gone from the game.
And it has nothing to do with our mediocrity. The money has ruined it.
Cue the wannabe Billy Badass "oh so you hate capitalism?!?" posts.
It's even ruined kids sports. Win at all costs has replaced any lessons about team, sportsmanship, sacrifice, etc.

ccolley68 said:

---

Aggie Michael said:

---

I think this says everything about the state of our program:

We have two of the top 100 players in our roster this year. Both of them haven't played a snap for A&M (both new transfers).

Makes you wonder why we are paying so much for NIL, coaching salaries, facilities if we can't coach, attract and develop talent.

We seem to downgrade talent as we get top HS recruits but then the elite ones leave to go to a good program while the others become busts (likely more of a lack of coaching / development as you would think you would be able to get at least one internally developed top 100 player with all these top recruits we are supposedly landing...

State of Aggieland: spend hundreds of millions on facilities, NIL, etc but don't hire the right leaders/coaches/AD/Presidents/chancellors so nothing improves. Perhaps the problem is simply all these generals leading the university without business / academic leadership experience. Spending/wasting hundreds of millions (billions for military) without the intended results is definitely a big gov't trait we seemed to have embraced as our culture.

https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/two-texas-a-m-aggies-named-among-top-100-returning-players-in-college-football-01jmndwjc04p

---

I'm sure a lot of folks on here, and just in general don't care, but I can say I know for a fact I am not alone in this. I am amongst a growing group of alums, in our prime professional earning/giving period, who are just completely disconnected from everything A&M. It's not just A&M's doing, it's just a culmination of many things.

The state of college athletics with NIL and transfer portal has created a disgusting collegiate athletic landscape that I really don't want to have much to do with it at all. And I know there will be posters who say if you post on Texags then that sentiment is false, but it's not. For one, I've been posting on here for 20 years, and it's more than just Aggie football, and while I am sick of the college athletic fiasco, I do hold on to the tiniest thread of interest and this is one of the places that thread exists.

As for the school itself, bigger isn't always better. The school was huge when I was in school and it's twice that size now with seemingly no end in sight to the expansion. And the folks in charge all seem to be completely ok, if not spearheading this, and that's not what I want from my Alma mater. It waters down the effort put in to graduate from a fine institution of higher learning, it diminishes the college experience for those current and future students, and it dilutes the value of being an alum for all of us old Ags. I generally spend more time and money and effort and networking with my grad school Alma mater (SMU) than anything A&M related. I don't even wear my ring anymore. I have gotten to the point with the insane expansion, it has little significance anymore.

I hate that I have gotten this way, but I also know I'm not alone. My wife and I are both Aggies, but we in now way even slightly encourage our kids to want to go to A&M. Our oldest we are nudging towards Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas, SMU, and TCU without even mentioning A&M. If it's what she wants, we won't stop her from going, but we certainly never talk it up. And the main part of that is because the leadership of the school and athletic departments have completely lost sight, or never had the sight to begin with, of what made A&M special. What resides in College Station today is not the A&M that myself, my parents generation, or my grandparents generation think A&M is/was.

Climbing back down off my soapbox from cloud yelling.

---

I don't like a lot of the growth and other changes at A&M either. Going to any school for the sports programs is a mistake. But one regret a lot of parents have when their kids go to college out of state is a lot of the kids don't come back. The employers are usually pretty regionalized. There obviously are exceptions, but Texas employers don't generally spend a lot of effort recruiting Mississippi or Georgia graduates… they don't have to. There's plenty of graduates in Texas to fill their needs. Same thing with employers in the southeast… they don't generally spend a lot of resources trying to hire kids from Texas. I have a few friends who sent kids to good schools out of state, but regret that their kids as young adults starting their own families don't plan to move back to Texas.

ccolley68 said:

---

As for the school itself, bigger isn't always better. The school was huge when I was in school and it's twice that size now with seemingly no end in sight to the expansion. And the folks in charge all seem to be completely ok, if not spearheading this, and that's not what I want from my Alma mater. It waters down the effort put in to graduate from a fine institution of higher learning, it diminishes the college experience for those current and future students, and it dilutes the value of being an alum for all of us old Ags. I generally spend more time and money and effort and networking with my grad school Alma mater (SMU) than anything A&M related. I don't even wear my ring anymore. I have gotten to the point with the insane expansion, it has little significance anymore.

---

In these discussions it seems no one considers how much the population has grown in the state. In order for Texas to keep college students in state, 1 of 2 things have to happen. Enrollment at existing institutions must increase and/or more universities need to be built.

I started my freshman year at A&M in 1981. The total undergrad enrollment that year was around 35k. the population of Texas was about 15 million.

In 2024 enrollment was 79k. Texas population was about 31 million. Enrollment has increased slightly more than population, but about on par (0.233% vs 0.255% - 9.4% increase relative to population).

Not sure how percentage of HS grads entering college has changed between 1981 and 2024, but I bet a higher percentage are going to college now.

It sure seemed like it was way harder for my kids to get into A&M in 2014-2016, then it was for me in 1981, so I don't think that the value of an A&M degree is being watered down. I would agree that from a student perspective, the experience is probably quite different from 1981 to today.