http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/30821/mailbag-aggiessec-underrating-new-qbs

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Yeah, my stance has basically remained the same since A&M's flirtations with the SEC started up more than a year ago. Texas A&M's decision-makers understand the risk in moving to the SEC, as well as the historical repercussions, saying goodbye to long-standing traditions with so many of the other schools in Texas.

Fans see opportunity for the program to grow in the SEC, and it's not impossible, but I feel it's much, much more likely that Texas A&M doesn't win in the SEC at the level it's won in the Big 12, which is already to say, not a ton. I see them on par with what Arkansas is now. Once in awhile, you may see them in the championship game, but if they're going to win a conference title, it's going to be once every 10-20 years. Programs like Alabama, LSU, Florida and rising powers like Auburn, not to mention sleeping powers like Georgia and Tennessee, won't make good new roommates if the Aggies want to win.

The recruiting advantages are overstated. The majority of players growing up in Texas dream of becoming Longhorns and beating the SEC, not going and playing in the SEC. Sure, when they get older, some of them realize schools like OU and Texas A&M are a better fit, but I absolutely, 100 percent disagree that "playing in the SEC" is a big draw for kids in Texas, and something that would help the Aggies recruiting substantially. It might be for a few guys, but it's not a game-changer, and the more difficult schedule would negate, if not overtake those advantages.

So, no. I don't think we'll see this every summer. Once this issue with the Longhorn Network is settled, I think the Big 12 will be back on solid footing. It will be glued together by the billion-dollar deal from Fox that it signed earlier this offseason, and looking forward to making even more money in 2014-15 when it negotiates a new deal for first-tier rights

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When your enemies start attacking your plans, you KNOW that you are on the right path.

SECede.

Ubben is an idiot. If we go to the SEC with OU, then tu is likely going Indy. tu will still play both of us.

How do we lose? By not playing Tech and Baylor?

Please.....

And Ubben is right.

How do you figure?

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The majority of players growing up in Texas dream of becoming Longhorns

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basically, he is saying that it will be the same in the SEC as it has been in the Big 12.

1. still won't be able to recruit against tu, just like we can't do now.
2. will be in the running for a conference championship once a decade.


hmm, so why not go again? ohh right, he would be out of a job and it would ruin his employers investment.

[This message has been edited by who?mikejones (edited 7/22/2011 12:33p).]

Ubbens secret agenda.. C'Mon guys...we leave for SEC then the big whatever implodes so that means no more big 12.....then

Uh oh no big 12 blog to write about anymore. then ubben is out a job. of course he's saying no...


**edit** mike jones.who. is faster than i

[This message has been edited by coastsrs (edited 7/22/2011 12:32p).]

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will be in the running for a conference championship once a decade.

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He said every 10-20 years so we would be lucky to average one every 10 years.

Ubben loves the sips and is very much like Beebe. He first and foremost wants to make sure he has a job. A&M has a ton of interest in the SEC and likewise the SEC in A&M. OU usually chimes in on SEC talk more as a negotiating ploy and hasn't yet made its preferences clear. I wouldn't mind if they went PAC-16 because the SEC West doesn't need to be that deep. It is perfect with us and someone more like MU even though I don't think the SEC is very interested in MU. Ubben is very wrong though. Our recruiting would improve in the SEC and ut knows it. Our culture would fit with the SEC like a glove and we would pretty much be the Florida of the west division by our 2nd year. If a couple teams get some slight sanctions and it helps us to make a SEC championship sooner, then that can only help us make an impact right away. A&M WILL SECede soon. I still predict a 2013 SEC start for us. It is by far the best move for the Aggies!

true enough...point being, we would be middle to back of the pack.

just like we have been in the big 12 for the majority of the time.

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The majority of players growing up in Texas dream of becoming Longhorns and beating the SEC, not going and playing in the SEC.

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Assuming what people are thinking.

The one thing that Ubben continue to ignore is that fact that while A&M may continue to be second in the state to Texas in recruiting, A&M would gain a considerable advantage in LA and Arkansas recruiting.


How can he not see this?

I mean if teh man truely did his homework, he would realize that A&M has been sticking it to Les Miles the opast couple of years and would have a leg up on LA recruits if their parents knew they would get to see their kids play every year.

I wonder if ubben tells his kids, 'don't try to get into that college; it's too hard and son, you've peeked'.

What a jacka$$.

People that play this card are guilty of one of three things: lack of vision; have a short memory (A&M in mid-80's to mid-90's; or have an agenda.

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The majority of players growing up in Texas dream of becoming Longhorns and beating the SEC, not going and playing in the SEC

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What better way to represent TX and beating SEC teams by playing in the SEC? The guy doesn't make sense.

Dell thinks we are stupid for wanting Apples.


Guy is purely self interested. No Big 12 is bad for him.

I respectfully disagree with his assessment.

The framework of his logic is built around a Texas media market that does not include the SEC. Annual games against Arkansas, LSU and Alabama will fundamentally change what games and teams garner interest among Texas HS athletes.

The competition will be stiffer, but the assertion that we simply can’t win in the SEC is nonsense.

His comparison to Arkansas ignores some critical differences in the states and institutions. UA is a school with 1/3 the enrollment of A&M in a state with a population 1/10th (2.9 vs. 25 mi) that of Texas and no metropolitan area with a population greater than 700K. The resources available to A&M far exceed that of UA. It is a fair point to wonder what the hell we have done with them for the last decade. Oh yeah, we hired a coach from an SEC powerhouse that did more damage to our program than the Second World War.

Ubbe the boob, is just repeating everything we are. Except he gives you better odds making CCG than most

my biggest issue is that if we go to the SEC, that prolly means that tu will go indy.

once in the SEC we will be able to say to recruits things like: "look who/where we play," "best league in the nation," "multiple prime time tv games."

but, the moment tu goes indy it will be able to schedule 12 games, all of which will be televised, and they will probably be able to schedule some pretty high profile games.

i do think we will be able to offer recruits something that we have never had before; something different, maybe better than tu.

But, i also can see where tu also would be offer something better than what they already do. guaranteed tv time. guaranteed high profile games.

and like always, winning cures everything. no matter the conference, winning games/conference champ/bowl games/natl champs is the only true way to establish our brand

You people who are against SEC because of mediocre reasons blow my mind. I would rather be mediocre there than in the crappy league we are in now. I agree. When the Enemies are telling you that you are wrong than you know you are on the right path. t.u. cares nothing of this league and that has been apparent since the beginning of time. They will go independent later when the network is sucesfull and they are winning a lot. By then these little leverage games we are playing with SEC will make us loose favor and we will be out of luck and stuck with Baylor in a league like the sun belt. Our administration ability to use forethought process is stagaring. They think that holding back the LHN for a few years will fix the damn by pluging a finger in one whole, as others start to leak on our face. Screwem all. SEC bound

at least we have an offer navy cowboy.

where are you guys gonna go when this conference explodes?

When playing chess you have to look 20 moves ahead not just getting excited when you take a knight here or there. We are refusing to see what the Whorns and ESPN are imagining for the LHN. When there is 300 million on the line there is no care for fellow league teams. The only thing they care about is LHN.

Haven't Tennessee, UGA, UF, LSU, Auburn, and Alabama won MNCs since the inception of the BCS? Don't you think our program compares more favorably to them than to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, etc?

SEC won't be a recruiting draw? Perhaps to the El Paso, Amarillo, or New Braunfels kids. But to kids from anywhere in East Texas, including Houston, SEC country will feel just like home. From Charleston to Bryan, the cultural substrate is surprisingly still quite constant. Anyone who's spent much time on I-20 or I-10 would know this.

And there's no one issue with the LHN. The sips' presumed exceptionalism and lack of respect for boundaries, combined with ESPN's greed, is going to be more like Marvel Comic's press: more issues every month than anyone cares to think about.

I don't know what great traditions (besides vs. the sips) he's referring to we have with other texas schools. It seems like the best of those, like the pony spurs, went away with the SWC anyway. There's no way we'd give up our annual game with the sips. So, is he implying we'll really miss the Wal-Mart sound system at bu's stadium, or the battery showers at ttu's stadium?

Ubben's post is full of specious logic at best. I agree with JW; I smell pressure from above in Ubben's writing. He either needs to become more willing or more able to disguise this influence, or we'll be seeing a new beat writer soon...

In that same time frame, only OU and tu have won MNCs. Which league offers a better chance at high levels of success?

Only SEC team anchored in the state of Texas wont be able to recruit? Ubben is really gonna stick with that? Okay.

Seriously people why do we want the SEC?

We got our asses handed to us by LSU last year, and we haven't beaten Arkansas the last two years. I just dont see us being able to recruit better by saying we are in the SEC. Kids want to play close to home (ie play multiple games in Texas every year). And the biggest draw to recruits above all else is winning. We wont win the first few years there and then what?

I think that Ubben makes some good points. If you think he is a tu fan you haven't read much of his stuff. He is pretty fair and equal. I think we are the only ones in the country that think this move to the SEC would be good for us. I see it as tougher schedule and harder to recruit.

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Haven't Tennessee, UGA, UF, LSU, Auburn, and Alabama won MNCs since the inception of the BCS?

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georgia has not. tennessee won the first one... and hasn't won a conference title since and been terrible since. Auburn only has because of cheating.

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We got our asses handed to us by LSU last year, and we haven't beaten Arkansas the last two years

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so, it will always be like this? has it always been like this?

so, if this was 1992 and the tables were turned with LSU was having to scramble and come to the SWC, would some of them had the same argument?

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I see it as tougher schedule and harder to recruit.

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so we should stay here and be whipping boys to daddy tu? i would argue that at the least, moving to the the SEC would garner about the same results that we have had over the last decade.

if you truly want to have an easier schedule then why not move to conference usa? hell, we would be undefeated.




[This message has been edited by who?mikejones (edited 7/22/2011 1:08p).]

Why are people scared of the SEC?

Would you rather just move to the Mountain West, be dominate and hope to sneak into a BCS bowl?


Sure the SEC will be a tougher league with a different style of play. So we will adapt and get better.

I dont see us as the whipping boy to tu on the field. Face it, we can't get that kind of tv deal. We have much more passionate fans, but we dont have nearly the t-shirt fans they do.

I just see currently in the Big 12 there are maybe four teams that are going to be pretty good every year and the other should be easy wins. You win the Big 12 easier than you win the SEC, and thus you have an easier path to BCS. In the SEC you have more great teams and a harder road. I want to believe we could adapt and we could win there, but so far we havent even done it in the easier conference in ten plus years.

Ubben is an idiot. And its not just the aggies that he gives poor reviews on, its everyone in the Big 12 minus the sips.

If this conference goes bust, what will he do then?

Where has Ubben ever said anything bad about us? He talks about us more than pretty much any other team and puts quite a few of our players on his "best" lists...

BCS Championship Game appearances by conference:


[Appearances] W/L Pct #Schools

SEC: [7] 7/0 1.000 5
Big 12: [7] 2/5 .286 3 (tu/OU/NU)
ACC: [3] 1/2 .333 1
Big East: [3] 1/2 .333 2
Big Ten: [3] 1/2 .333 1
Pac-12†: [1] 0/1 (2 vacated)


SEC has had 5/12 teams make the championship since the BCS started. Try to argue against parity in the league. And when they get there they are undefeated. Now argue against the league preparing you to win that game once you do get there.

Also now that the BIG12-2 is weakened, only an undefeated team will make it. If there are more than 2 undefeated teams...forget it. Road to a championship actually looks statistically harder.

SECede.

[This message has been edited by JW (edited 7/22/2011 1:22p).]

[This message has been edited by JW (edited 7/22/2011 1:22p).]

I am not sure why so many of you are attacking Ubben. How would you all react if the primary thing you worked on at a particular company was in danger of going away? That, in effect, what could be happening here and he very well could be worried about that. I am not going to bash the guy for wanting to keep the conference he works on in tact.

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
-John Wooden

Wow, another sip shill is saying:

Just accept it like we are! We need to all agree to let tu have this enormous recruiting advantage in EVERY sport and the rest of us can just play for fun and second place!

F that.

We will ONLY stay in thic conference if it benefits and no sip is going to tell us the Big 12 will be as beneficial to us after they start airing HS games for all sports.

Either drop the HS games or we have ZERO reason to stay in this conference, its as simple as that.