Devil's advocate take - How important are facilities really in recruiting?

[NT80]

4 minutes ago, greenminer said:

you've lost me.  I'm not even sure where your goalposts are right now.  Can you clarify?

you said "It's being in the B12 that matters."  which, it does.  when it comes to P5 vs. G5, conference affiliation is a hurdle we often cannot overcome, regardless of our facilities.
The original question is, does the facilities race matter in recruiting?  What I'm trying to say is, the facilities matter more when it comes to us recruiting against our G5 peers.
 

The conference label matters to recruits more than facilities.  Our facilities are fine, but could always be better.  TP didn't pick NT over UTSA because of anything other than coach and playing time.  It's apples and oranges to everyone.  But we can win now!

 

[greenminer]

3 minutes ago, NT80 said:

The conference label matters to recruits more than facilities.  Our facilities are fine, but could always be better.  TP didn't pick NT over UTSA because of anything other than coach and playing time.  It's apples and oranges to everyone.  But we can win now!

 

Ah I gotcha.

Yeah, when it comes to P5s, conference affiliation matters more when we are talking about recruiting to Denton.

But I think that most of our recruits, we are competing against fellow Texas G5s, and other AAC schools.  This is where I think the original question comes in: does it matter to these recruits?

[97and03]

Our presuming starting quarterback named our facilities as a primary reason he chose NT. Granted, he was comparing them to ULM but it still shows they matter to some recruits. 
And for those saying conference affiliation is equal or more important, perhaps that is true but do you know to whom facilities matters? To conferences selecting their members. That’s a big reason why we are in the AAC and programs like LaTech are not. 

[Cougar King]

Conference affiliation is the most important factor. We wouldn't have flipped a 4 star linebacker from LSU, flipped our #1 receiver Matthew Golden from TCU nor would we have signed multiple 4 star receivers if we were still in the AAC.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Cougar King

[TheColonyEagle]

22 hours ago, bstnsportsfan3 said:

Winning is the most important recruiting tool

It trumps everything.  
 

facilities can maybe help some if you’re not winning, but winning with bad facilities will always do more than losing with good facilities. 
 

I’m not talking about “winning” as in 7-5. I’m talking about 10 win seasons. Top 25 rankings. 

when UTSA has a couple of down years, their recruiting will drop. They’re winning at a 10+ wins a season clip, top 25 rankings. and they’ve done it for several years. No facility can compete with that level of winning. 

[Rudy]

9 hours ago, Cougar King said:

People downvoted you because your joke wasn't funny.

If there's an expert on downvotes, it would be you. 

[TheColonyEagle]

18 hours ago, greenminer said:

P5 conference affiliation is an entirely different, powerful influence that dwarfs almost anything else we can offer recruits.

Although it hasn't been said out loud, I think this discussion is mostly about winning recruits amongst our AAC/G5 peers.

That's the way I took this topic...

[bstnsportsfan3]

15 hours ago, TheColonyEagle said:

It trumps everything.  
 

facilities can maybe help some if you’re not winning, but winning with bad facilities will always do more than losing with good facilities. 
 

I’m not talking about “winning” as in 7-5. I’m talking about 10 win seasons. Top 25 rankings. 

when UTSA has a couple of down years, their recruiting will drop. They’re winning at a 10+ wins a season clip, top 25 rankings. and they’ve done it for several years. No facility can compete with that level of winning. 

100% agree. We can have the IPF and all these other things but sorry to say a kid isn’t impressed with a 2004 sun belt championship ring at this point. Have multiple 10 win seasons and conference titles and I guarantee we see an even greater uptick in recruiting! It’s honestly very impressive what our current staff has done. 

[greenminer]

Bumping.  There was some good stuff in this thread, and now we see SMU is 6-2.

[wardly]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:59 PM, greenminer said:

Ah I gotcha.

Yeah, when it comes to P5s, conference affiliation matters more when we are talking about recruiting to Denton.

But I think that most of our recruits, we are competing against fellow Texas G5s, and other AAC schools.  This is where I think the original question comes in: does it matter to these recruits?

I think good facilities just levels the playing field. If your venue, practice facilities, locker and weight room's, etc are similar to Fouts Field or the old Men's Gym then you are in world of hurt. Its an arm's race, and we must keep up with the competition. Having said that, I don't know how we can justify spending $75 million or so for a new basketball arena in today's uncertain athletic environment. A new arena would need to be funded  like our football stadium was, as use of state money is not allowed in Texas.

[Cerebus]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, Mike Jackson said:

NIL is insignificant compared no conference championships in 38 years, highlights of 1/2 empty Ford Stadium and snooty student body that wouldn’t acknowledge your existence on campus if you didn’t have a great 40 time or bench 300 lbs.  We will see what NIL can buy you in year 3.  But so far it does not equate to actually winning anything or retaining the best coach y’all had since the death penalty.  

I promise you if we had aTm level of NIL dollars we would be killing every G5 in the state on recruiting, and we would be really hurting the P5 schools as well.  

[Jonnyeagle]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, Mike Jackson said:

NIL is insignificant compared no conference championships in 38 years, highlights of 1/2 empty Ford Stadium and snooty student body that wouldn’t acknowledge your existence on campus if you didn’t have a great 40 time or bench 300 lbs.  We will see what NIL can buy you in year 3.  But so far it does not equate to actually winning anything or retaining the best coach y’all had since the death penalty.  

That is just crazy talk.  Nil is the most important thing to happen to college athletics in 30 years.  SMU is proving that NIL can change the face of a program. 

[greenminer]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:47 PM, Mike Jackson said:

NIL is insignificant compared no conference championships in 38 years, highlights of 1/2 empty Ford Stadium and snooty student body that wouldn’t acknowledge your existence on campus if you didn’t have a great 40 time or bench 300 lbs.  We will see what NIL can buy you in year 3.  But so far it does not equate to actually winning anything or retaining the best coach y’all had since the death penalty.  

I don't think a player is going to dwell much on a program history or crowds when their family is offered life changing money.