That's why when people say to me we are at the top of the NIL food chain, I gotta disagree. I understand we choose to allocate ours differently with a big Cantwell win, and then breaking the bank for Beck and now Mensah. But I'm just saying, Tex/Tamu/USC/Oregon, probably OSU seem to be buying whoever they want. Now OSU and to a lesser extent Ore and USC have been winning some football games, but Tamu is off one big season and USC hasn't won in a good while.
When it comes to HS recruiting it makes no sense Tamu is just beating out everyone for everyone lol…Especially when as noted above, they are on the hook for Jimbo too
USC has only had one cycle under Riley where they are dominant (I’ll define this as top3-5) in recruiting. This is their second. However, historically, it’s been an easy place to recruit at. Riley hasn’t made the playoffs yet however he has a long track record at OU that stamps him.
OSU is a powerhouse program that became the first program since Miami and Alabama to win championships in three consecutive decades (‘Bama has done it in 4 & counting now). They are going to recruit themselves to an extent although they obviously have money.
Texas has always recruited at an elite level. Even so, last cycle they were 7th. The last two times they were out of top ten was when they brought in Tom Herman and when they fired Tom Herman (2017, 2021). Before then, it was when they fired Mack and brought in Charlie Strong. So you get the picture.
We had a higher composite average per recruit than Texas last cycle; but the year prior they were second highest the country. We’ve had at least one higher ranked class than all those programs since Mario has gotten here.
Oregon is winning, Nike factory, cool factor, etc but Mario is really the guy that elevated their operations & they’ve continued after that. I don’t think they are throwing around as much money as A&M, USC and Texas.
This will A&M’s first top 5 class since 2022. They are riding their momentum and throwing more money around similarly how they did after Jimbo went 9-1 in 2020. We’ll see if they can maintain this level of talent acquisition, even with their money, in future cycles. And they'll need roster retention as well.
We just need to be within range and make the right evals. Our highest rated class has already lost our fourth, fifth and sixth highest rated players and half of our top ten. Our lowest rated class might be our best yet.
