Hear me out on this one,
I think we may have added some positive differentiation on the recruiting front by moving to the ACC.
Think about a west coast kid's options if he wanted to stay close to home. Now you can compete against programs that get a ton more attention waay earlier in the day....by NFL scouts, talking heads, still semi sober and awake east coast ESPN eyeballs all while staying right at home, multiple cool away venues, vastly different exposures.
Cal & Furd will be the only two West Coast schools that play in a conference with a true southern feel, with football games against UNC, Miami, FSU, Clemson, possibly Notre Dame & (checks notes, clears throat), umm Duke? what is not to like?
Would you rather play in warm Florida against two of the three traditional powerhouses there? (oh by the way as a current year recruit you would also also get to play the other member of that troika.. florida for a couple of years as well as that other SEC also ran we play this weekend...Alaburna...Amnotbama, something like that) Or would you rather travel to Ames, Lubbock, Stillwater and Waco in November? This works in reverse to our advantage for a southern recruit that wants to come west but still come home to play games in front of friends and family.
Now onto those other former conference mates and their destinations....
First off, lets address the obvious SEC Elephant and multiple tigers (3 different tigers really?) in the room. There is no way to stay home west and play in the almighty SEC....OK, TX nearest chance to do that, no former PXII, so not a factor for a stay in the west kid.
B1G, no south, no texas, freezing cold roadtrips (please kindly geographically overlook Syracuse, BC or pitt for the purposes of comparison right now) Yes you get arguably stronger teams in the B1G so lets call that one for what it is, moderate advantage for B1G west coast schools over us. But let's be honest, how often do we compete directly against SC or Oregon for recruits?
vs. the rest of our former conference mates I would argue we now possess a better chance for west coast & southern 3-4 star talent.
WSU, ORST.....rough road recruiting going forward for them...(please observe moment of silence out of respect for the nearly dead here)
Now the other 4 who went Big 12?, what marquee programs are in the Big 12 that you get to play besides... West Virginia? TCU? Baylor? and oh yeah...now featuring UTAH! Without TX/OK the big 12 is treading water at best until the next round of realignment (in the ACC GOR we trust!). The geographic footprint frankly sucks for the Big 12.... 1 southern School (USF) and 1 quasi east coast (WVU), otherwise its just a bunch of mormons, texans, and low visibility four corner & adjacent flyover schools.
Frankly I think ASU & Zona have made a huge strategic mistake from a geographical population / visibility perspective.
Colorado is an outlier for now....man its going to be a wild ride on the Prime Time Train (what ever happened to Neon Deion anyway?)....this could be a real thing...it could also flame out spectacularly but its not going to be a dull ride. Frankly where they play doesn't really matter for the time being recruiting wise. That said the knock against him will be that he is not a long term occupant of the coaching throne in boulder.....3 years at best before he is either off to greener pastures or fired with an ugly divorce settlement. Slightly favor the... he gets bored playing Iowa State and Kansas and moves on scenario.
Utah? Whittingham will keep doing Whittingham just with slightly less visibility but the same results....rock solid just like his chin.
So...In summation:
I cannot imagine a more important game to stay competitive and ultimately prevail in than the one coming up This Saturday....its time to show those Fox network cucks what they screwed up not bidding for.
Bring the house & lets roll on you Bears!
ACC will work just dandy.
I think we may have added some positive differentiation on the recruiting front by moving to the ACC.
Think about a west coast kid's options if he wanted to stay close to home. Now you can compete against programs that get a ton more attention waay earlier in the day....by NFL scouts, talking heads, still semi sober and awake east coast ESPN eyeballs all while staying right at home, multiple cool away venues, vastly different exposures.
Cal & Furd will be the only two West Coast schools that play in a conference with a true southern feel, with football games against UNC, Miami, FSU, Clemson, possibly Notre Dame & (checks notes, clears throat), umm Duke? what is not to like?
Would you rather play in warm Florida against two of the three traditional powerhouses there? (oh by the way as a current year recruit you would also also get to play the other member of that troika.. florida for a couple of years as well as that other SEC also ran we play this weekend...Alaburna...Amnotbama, something like that) Or would you rather travel to Ames, Lubbock, Stillwater and Waco in November? This works in reverse to our advantage for a southern recruit that wants to come west but still come home to play games in front of friends and family.
Now onto those other former conference mates and their destinations....
First off, lets address the obvious SEC Elephant and multiple tigers (3 different tigers really?) in the room. There is no way to stay home west and play in the almighty SEC....OK, TX nearest chance to do that, no former PXII, so not a factor for a stay in the west kid.
B1G, no south, no texas, freezing cold roadtrips (please kindly geographically overlook Syracuse, BC or pitt for the purposes of comparison right now) Yes you get arguably stronger teams in the B1G so lets call that one for what it is, moderate advantage for B1G west coast schools over us. But let's be honest, how often do we compete directly against SC or Oregon for recruits?
vs. the rest of our former conference mates I would argue we now possess a better chance for west coast & southern 3-4 star talent.
WSU, ORST.....rough road recruiting going forward for them...(please observe moment of silence out of respect for the nearly dead here)
Now the other 4 who went Big 12?, what marquee programs are in the Big 12 that you get to play besides... West Virginia? TCU? Baylor? and oh yeah...now featuring UTAH! Without TX/OK the big 12 is treading water at best until the next round of realignment (in the ACC GOR we trust!). The geographic footprint frankly sucks for the Big 12.... 1 southern School (USF) and 1 quasi east coast (WVU), otherwise its just a bunch of mormons, texans, and low visibility four corner & adjacent flyover schools.
Frankly I think ASU & Zona have made a huge strategic mistake from a geographical population / visibility perspective.
Colorado is an outlier for now....man its going to be a wild ride on the Prime Time Train (what ever happened to Neon Deion anyway?)....this could be a real thing...it could also flame out spectacularly but its not going to be a dull ride. Frankly where they play doesn't really matter for the time being recruiting wise. That said the knock against him will be that he is not a long term occupant of the coaching throne in boulder.....3 years at best before he is either off to greener pastures or fired with an ugly divorce settlement. Slightly favor the... he gets bored playing Iowa State and Kansas and moves on scenario.
Utah? Whittingham will keep doing Whittingham just with slightly less visibility but the same results....rock solid just like his chin.
So...In summation:
I cannot imagine a more important game to stay competitive and ultimately prevail in than the one coming up This Saturday....its time to show those Fox network cucks what they screwed up not bidding for.
Bring the house & lets roll on you Bears!
ACC will work just dandy.