The SEC Adding a Pair of Blue Bloods Could Have A Number of Ripple Effects on the Recruiting Trail

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The college football world was set ablaze earlier this week when it was revealed that both Oklahoma and Texas are planning to join the SEC. The reorientation of the conference has been an ongoing discussion over the years, but the two main Big 12 programs joining the Southeastern Conference? It is a very big deal. The move would be immense in terms of money and the college football playoff; also in progress with an extended format. For Ryan Day and the Buckeyes, winning the Big Ten on an annual basis will continue to push Ohio State into the playoffs. And the extension should make it possible for this to be done even if there is a marking in the loss column. It could get a little interesting from a recruiting perspective. The Buckeyes have landed an absurd amount of talent from the Lone Star State with players like JK Dobbins, Baron Browning, Jeff Okudah and five-star wide receiver duo Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. It certainly hasn’t slowed down for the 2022 class as the nation’s top contender and two other Texans are already in the engagement column. Charlie Strong and Tom Herman did the rest of the country a favor. Programs like Alabama, LSU, and Ohio State made their second home in one of the most talented states in the United States. Steve Sarkisian wants to radically change that, but none of the state’s top 15 candidates are hired in Texas right now. We are still five months from early signing, but this is a serious problem for the Longhorns. Ohio State has proven time and again that it is more than capable of winning recruiting battles against the SEC’s power programs. These battles were won from coast to coast and sometimes even in the heart of SEC land. JK Dobbins, Jeff Okudah, and Garrett Wilson had the opportunity to play for any program in America. They all made the decision to travel 1,200 miles to Columbus rather than side with the Longhorns in the state or any of the SEC powers. Had the University of Texas added a little SEC logo, would that have made any difference? Absolutely not. But there will certainly be some actors in the state who see the SEC differently, and perhaps Texas’s involvement in the conference could ultimately feed into their decisions. In the 2021 recruiting class, two Longhorn legacies from Fort Worth signed with Alabama. Would the Horns have attacked Tommy Brockermeyer and his four-star brother James with five stars if they hadn’t been in the little Big 12? Or was that just Nick Saban doing Nick Saban things? Texas A&M joined the SEC back in 2012. Since then, the Aggies have had a higher win rate (68%) than the Horns (58%) and play in a far superior league all the time. The change of conferences has also given TAMU a big boost on the recruiting path. Still, the University of Texas is the state’s flagship institution, and Austin’s general tradition and prestige surpass that of College Station. The Texas recruitment limit should definitely be higher than the Aggies. The Longhorns, who are leaving a relatively weak conference to team up with the best in the country, could potentially give Steve Sarkisian some boost. We’ll see how the Sarkisian experiment works in Austin. We might underestimate him a little, but there’s no reason to believe that Texas comes anywhere near Oklahoma’s level in the Big 12. As for the SEC? Right now, the Longhorns are likely closer to Tennessee than they are to Alabama or Georgia. Would moving to the SEC in Texas shake things up a bit? Necessarily. But Ryan Day will continue to be heavily recruiting for the Lone Star State and all other talented regions. It may take a little more work and resources to move forward, but the latest news about the realignment is hardly a death knell for Ohio State, Texas’s recruiting efforts. Or maybe the Aggies prevail and this is all a moot point.

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