RaiderEagle

I think every fan has the right to be frustrated but I do feel recruiting has been heading in the right direction. I also think it's a little early to give up entirely on Littrell. Briles at baylor was only 25-25 overall after four years with only one winning conference record of 6-3 in 2011. Littrell is already at 25 wins with over half of his fourth season left. I think having patience with Seth will ultimately payoff.

Not sure how much it plays in but one thing the addition of West Virginia has shown us is if a school doesn't have any sense of true rivalry with others in their own conference they just feel out of place. It wouldn't be that bad for UH since they are at least in the state but UNT would literally share the same metro area with TCU. Also, I believe (and I may be wrong here) that Baylor, Tech and UT have larger alumni bases in DFW than Houston which would help fill Apogee.

I don't often find myself thinking Gundy is spot on but this is an exception. I imagine the four Texas schools have political pressure to say they endorse Houston but the six non-Texas schools likely see it the way Gundy does.

I think UNT offers as much as Houston and UNT would immediately have a rival in TCU given the proximity. Also, I did my MBA at UNT and absolutely loved the school so I'm totally biased. Oh, and I can't leave off that as a Red Raider living in Frisco I could see Tech more often too. :)

I would much rather have UNT join than Houston.

Not that SMU has absolutely nothing to offer but I can't imagine the Big 12 having interest. Adding them doesn't get the conference additional TVs which seems to be a key factor in conference expansion talk. Already having TCU in the conference probably all but assures SMU will never get an invite.

I think Houston is probably one of the more deserving schools that the Big 12 has on their list. I just don't know if UT will allow another Texas school in. I think BYU would make sense but I'm not sure if the Big 12 wants to expand west or not. I hear a lot of talk about Cincy but I don't know if they would really be a fit. I guess they would at least give the conference one school geographically close to West Virginia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/a-football-school-where-your-alma-mater-is-your-alibi/2016/06/01/5cb96b62-27f8-11e6-a3c4-0724e8e24f3f_story.html

I'm with you. I hope they learn from it but I also hoped they learned from the basketball murder/attempted cover up in 2003. If it was just about any other school I would think surely they won't do something this corrupt again but I just don't have that confidence in baylor.

I can't decide what I think will happen to briles. If it was any other school I would say ABSOLUTELY he loses his job. However, since it's baylor I'm not certain they will do the right thing because they haven't done the right thing in so long.

Having aggie join another P5 isn't a bad thing. Having a state funded school who is currently in a P5 get left out is. It's very simple and that's why aggie leaving is apples to oranges here.

It boils down to money and politics. OSU and Tech are both little brothers to OU and UT respectively where the private schools don't have that luxury. There will be political pressure from each state that their little brother state-funded-school isn't left behind. Also, OSU and Tech are top 30 in terms of value so they do have monetary appeal...granted nothing compared to their big brothers but still better than over 100 other FBS programs. They also have large alumni pools and stadiums that house just over $60K which doesn't hurt their odds of tagging along with OU and UT. And of course if a conference wants OU ad UT for the money that comes along you once again have political pressure for the little brothers to tag along. It will be just like it was in 2011 where the PAC was willing to take OU, UT, OSU and Tech and made it painfully clear that Baylor would not be part of the deal. Had it not been for the Longhorn network already being in the works those four schools might currently be out west. http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesheadlines/2011/09/18/report-pac-12-finalizing-details-to-add-ut-ou-osu-and-texas-tech http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-much-is-your-favorite-college-football-team-worth-1452473476 But I am not holding my breath this will happen. I think the Big 12 is willing to do whatever it takes to remain on life support for the foreseeable future.

If only 8% of recruits are 4/5 stars then the vast majority of the 128 FBS schools won't even land one in any given class. Also, I've always wondered how much (if at all) recruiting sites take into account WHO is offering a kid. It seems often times if a kid has offers from say UNT, SMU, UH and Rice they are a 2 maybe 3 star. However if UT, A&M and OU make an offer the kid suddenly becomes a 4 star. Maybe it's a misconception on my end or maybe the recruiting sites don't know enough about every potential recruit in the country and partially rely on top programs to shine the light on a recruit. So the question is do top programs simply attract better talent or do top programs better assess talent, especially for their specific system? Like most things it's probably some of both. If top programs (all of which are in power 5 conferences or indepenents in ND's case) attract better talent there isn't a lot mid-major schools can do to catch up. But if top programs attribute part of their recruiting success to assessment of talent then in that regard a school like UNT can somewhat level the playing field. I think this at least partially explains the Boise States of college football. They seem to do a great job of identifying talent that fits what they need and then getting the most out of them while on campus. UT on the other hand (lately) seems to do the opposite. I realize these are just two examples but I think it helps show the importance of evaluating talent for your system. You could also consider the importance of strength and conditioning and the overall ability of a program to develop talent but that would require a lot more discussion.

It would be interesting to know how many other programs were pursuing him after Boise State threw him out of school. When an All-American gets tossed out you would almost have to assume it wasn't for something minor or insignificant. Which would lead one to believe baylor didn't care what he did so long as he brought a strong pass rush.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/13136727/tcu-baylor-proving-three-star-texas-prospects-most-valuable-recruits Sorry if already posted