re: Pac16 vs SEC 16 (TAMU Gains No Advantage)

This travel talk is nonsense. Texas played a 2:30 central game Saturday in front of the largest road Texas crowd I've ever seen for a reg. Season game. There were Texas fans all over town. Along with a huge alumni base there and the bay area. I'll give you a couple of spots in the PAC hold little appeal (sort of like Starkvegas) but ags are blowing this out of proportion. Texas and OU are not going to play all their road games at 9:30.

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It will be harder then ever to recruit Texas going forward.

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Dead wrong!

More Texas high school kids than previously will want to play in the SEC's stadiums, and on CST and EST television. TAM will make inroads again on UT(already had begun anyways before realingment) and OU.

Pac-10 ball is smaller and more finesse, players like Lache Seastrunk may choose an Oregon(now back in Tex at Bayl) to suit his skillsets.

Expansion into Texas for the SEC isn't all about tv sets. It's giving Texas youth ownership into the SEC as a member, as a fan, recruit, or out-of-state student. It's planting an SEC flag into Hou, Dal, SA, Aust, etc..

It's further establishing all big Texas markets as SEC Country for alumni bases, and their sporting interests for the coming decade$.

It's opening the Tejas recruiting grounds to all SEC schools(not just primarily Ark, LSU, and Bama), as fully accepted members..and not just distant interlopers. It's a bad thing for UT-Austin! OU too.

Mom and dad can much easier travel to games as SEC Parents by car if need be, like those at LSU, Ark, Bama, etc..than can to Seattle, Pullman, SF, Berkley, Eugene, Corvallis, Tempe, Tucson, etc..most of which whether cheap or not to fly to..aren't cheap once you arrive there to get rooms and/or eat.

Unless rich or having sh!itpots of FF miles..or SWA being a big Texas company will open and continue $99 fares from Tex metros to Pac college towns, some of which do already have decent fares to major cities out west.

Still, those are long roadies, and late-night game viewing(kids want to be seen on tv and hyped for pro ball paydays), it's why so many kids especially left coast hoopsters have left for the Kan, Syr, Mich, UNC, Duke,etc..even with UCLA and Zona sporting natty power programs.

The western US population may be growing, but is multiple time Mtn zones away from the other 75%ish of the US population. They live differently, have a different mindset, and are forgotten viewing to most Americans east of the Miss River..thus why they must tee it up while still digesting their breakfast on ABC if wanting most of America to have a clue about them.

I'm hardcore, and a sicko gambler, like many other SEC fans, thus will stay up all night 'til the last game goes final..but that ain't John Q Normal in Chicago or NYC's typical viewing schedule though.

Fear not, TAM may or may not become a monster force in the SEC, but by joining the SEC they have furthered their fellow SEC schools forays into soon former UT and Okla's recruiting lock-stock-and-barrel strongholds.

Even if th Pac goes to day games to ease travel for the former Big-12ers in the new Pac, you underestimate the wear-tear on students and their time, and the demands that the mileage will create.

Once in a lifetime Rose trips to LA and/or UCLA home-and-homes have now become an every other year reality. Not the same.

Some may overestimate it's effects, some under, but give it a few years before dismissing it so easily.

Texas no longer gets to play all those "roadies" in their home state..I suspect you will learn some harsh realities vs stiffer competition, much more of it, and in farther away environs.

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yeah, real big prize...a weird cult military school in the middle of nowhere that never wins anything in any sport.

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A&M has won a few national titles in several sports the last few years. But I guess you knew that.