Map Radius

[Piggfoot]

This is an interesting site. I entered College station with 200 mile radius.
It encloses Dallas, Waco, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Cristi, and almost out to Abilene.
College Station is smack in the middle of Texas' major population areas. What an advantage. I wonder why Frank wanted them in the SEC?

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

There is also a population module. After looking at the 200 mile radius, notice the kilometers. On the population module size the circle to the appropriate Kilometers.

Fayetteville's 200 mile radius has 6.2 million
College Station has 19 million

[Hogarusa]

You could have just searched hogville threads since A&M joined the SEC for the exact same results

[Wildhog]

That's what I was telling everyone that was arguing for them joining the SEC.  It was awful for us.

[thirrdegreetusker]

Not to mention Austin, with another million-plus in that metro area. Texas has three of the top largest metro areas in the country (Hou, San Ant, DFW) plus another measley million in Austin. Lots of prospects.

[Biggus Piggus]

This is an interesting site. I entered College station with 200 mile radius.
It encloses Dallas, Waco, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Cristi, and almost out to Abilene.
College Station is smack in the middle of Texas' major population areas. What an advantage. I wonder why Frank wanted them in the SEC?

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

Because...College Station has always been there?

[Gonzo]

Population is where it is, no changing that, not for a long time anyway. A&M and other TX schools are going to have the advantage of location, period. However, I think there a couple positives for having them in the SEC fold.

First, it helps improve the  SEC's media footprint into a very crucial area and should help raise revenues over time for all conference schools. Having a foothold in the heart of a few million more potential fans is hardly a negative.

Second, and more crucial for the Hogs imo, that same awareness should factor into recruiting, and TX recruiting has been the Hogs lifeblood forever. The Hogs will likely never challenge A&M, texas, or even OU for the cream of the crop in the state, but there are far more kids available than they can monopolize. The UA's main competition for TX kids has basically always been the second tier schools like Baylor, Tech, TCU, and the other national outsiders that try to pick a kid or two out of the crop each year. Having an SEC presence in TX won't change any of that against the top 3, but it could provide a little extra ammo against the rest. A kid won't choose the UA over texas or OU because his family and friends can easily follow him in the SEC, but it might even things up a bit when a kid is choosing between the others and the Hogs, and that little extra boost just might be enough with some kids. Clearly, putting a high-profile, winning product on the field is the best fuel, but being part of the local coverage doesn't hurt.

No idea if any of that was part of Broyles' thinking, but it is a large part of why I think bringing them in was a good move for the conference. I wish the OK schools would have had the balls to spurn the whorns and come along too.



Go Hogs!

[tlmack]

The Oklahoma schools are just like Texas.They want the path of least resistance.Play 1 maybe 2 tough games a year.They are afraid to play in the SEC!

[Ex-Trumpet]

This is an interesting site. I entered College station with 200 mile radius.
It encloses Dallas, Waco, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Cristi, and almost out to Abilene.
College Station is smack in the middle of Texas' major population areas. What an advantage. I wonder why Frank wanted them in the SEC?

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

There is also a population module. After looking at the 200 mile radius, notice the kilometers. On the population module size the circle to the appropriate Kilometers.

Fayetteville's 200 mile radius has 6.2 million
College Station has 19 million

Still trying to figure out why anyone would enter College Station without immediately exiting.   

[MuskogeeHogFan]

The Oklahoma schools are just like Texas.They want the path of least resistance.Play 1 maybe 2 tough games a year.They are afraid to play in the SEC!

There isn't any doubt that most Big 12 schools have no desire to play in the SEC, but the same could be said for most of the schools in the other major conferences.

Don't kid yourself, schools like Oklahoma and Texas, maybe even Oklahoma State would acclimate and have some success. Same with Clemson, Florida State and Va Tech from the ACC and Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and USC from the Pac 12. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and maybe even Penn State would also acclimate and become competitive powers in the SEC. All of these schools have too many existing resources and are too big of a draw for recruits to do otherwise.

But would they come? I doubt it. Many of these schools have a birds nest on the ground within their existing conferences. Why join a meat-grinder like the SEC when they can stay where they are and have a better shot at a major bowl or be in the play-offs?

[Theolesnort]

Good grief people they are still a bunch of Aggies.

[Inhogswetrust]

Good grief people they are still a bunch of Aggies.

Ding, ding, ding.................we have a winner!

[PonderinHog]

Surely, we can find some football players down in Texas that don't want to be aggies.   

[redeye]

That's what I was telling everyone that was arguing for them joining the SEC.  It was awful great for us.

fify

[BPsTheMan]

I think I'm gonna start driving around town in reverse so I can complain I'm only able to go 35 miles an hour

[Magic_Hogg]

OU has always had the best of both worlds.  Thanks to OU-TX, they have always had a large TX footprint.  Back in the days of the Big 8, OU had 2 big games per year on the schedule - NE and TX.  Since the Big 12, they have been dominant in a conference that at the end of the day just had an awful lot of weak sisters.  Now that the Big 12 has expanded after the teams that bolted, they added TCU a historical patsy and WVU.

What a mess.  But deep down my OU friends know good and well why they are not interested in joining the SEC.  And it ain't academics - which I think the SEC leads vs the Big 12 anyway.

[Hawghiggs]

The Oklahoma schools are just like Texas.They want the path of least resistance.Play 1 maybe 2 tough games a year.They are afraid to play in the SEC!

And yet they still cash big ESPN checks and go to big bowl games. But we get to chant for Alabama.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

If you are going to use the tool use it.

Population within 200 mile radius of every SEC school.

Alabama 14 mil
Arkansas 6.2 mil
Auburn 14 mil
Baton Rouge 7.1 mil
College Station 19 mil
Oxford 9.4 mil
Starkville 9.0 mil.

Auburn and Tuscaloosa both extend to Atlanta and Georgia may be the richest state in terms of D-1 FBS level athletes.
Baton Rouge is low but a big portion of their radius is under water.  LA however does produce a boatload of talent as well.

Taking these numbers into account and the relatively low number of D-1 prospects the state produces the level of success we have been able to achieve in the SEC is pretty impressive and also explains while our ebbs may be a little more frequent and last longer than others.

[verticalhog]

There are multiple ways to view this.  One would be that since A&M is in the SEC, the best thing that could happen to us would be for Texas to also join the SEC.  Most kids in Texas grow up either wanting to be a Longhorn or an Aggie (if they are Baptist, Baylor enters the picture for different reasons).  Right now, A&M is out-recruiting the Longhorns because the kids have figured out they have a better chance of landing in the NFL coming out of the SEC than any other conference.

Another consideration is that while that "circle" around Fayetteville has far fewer kids in it, there are a lot more good choices for the kids around A&M within their own state.  If a kid spends his formative years in Arkansas, there's a good chance he wants to be a Hog (maybe 80% but some want to get away from home).  If a kid grows up in Texas, he probably has a favorite team in Texas but won't be bothered if he has to go with a second, third, or fourth choice in the state.  As much as A-State would like to believe it, if a kid grows up wanting to be a Hog, they probably aren't very excited if they don't get offered by UA but do get offered by A-State.

Probably more important than having about 3 times the population in the circle for A&M is the fact that kids coming out of high school in Texas are better prepared to play college ball.  I grew up and played high school ball in Arkansas but when I moved to Texas and raised my two sons there, it was so apparent that the coaches, facilities, fan commitment (including money), etc. were just on a different planet from Arkansas.

[baitshop]

That 9 million in a 200 mile radius didn't matter before Johnny Manziel....and didn't make that hideous defense any better last year....and it won't matter in the coming years any more than it did before JM...

A&M, IMO, doesn't just come back to the pack this year, they come back to the middle of the pack....

[ricepig]

That 9 million in a 200 mile radius didn't matter before Johnny Manziel....and didn't make that hideous defense any better last year....and it won't matter in the coming years any more than it did before JM...

A&M, IMO, doesn't just come back to the pack this year, they come back to the middle of the pack....

We'll find out what kind of coach Sumlin is now, no doubt he can recruit.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

That 9 million in a 200 mile radius didn't matter before Johnny Manziel....and didn't make that hideous defense any better last year....and it won't matter in the coming years any more than it did before JM...

A&M, IMO, doesn't just come back to the pack this year, they come back to the middle of the pack....

19 million but don't let the facts get in the way of a good argument.  Also they had Mike Sherman who was not a very good CFB coach vastly underachieved.

[Hoggish1]

Good grief people they are still a bunch of Aggies.

We would like to believe that.  But the fact is, they are Aggies in the SEC, which is too bad...

[Hoggish1]

19 million but don't let the facts get in the way of a good argument.  Also they had Mike Sherman who was not a very good CFB coach vastly underachieved.

That was indeed their problem.  It was unbelievable they went after him—typical Aggie behavior ( but then how do you explain Nutts?). 

So, with Sherman long gone, there are few problems left for Arkansas fans to fa;; back on, remembering the old SWC.

[RazorPiggie]

Look up the 200 mile radius of every team in the SEC and see how close they are to major recruiting grounds. We are no where close. That's why we never fair well in recruiting.

[bphi11ips]

Losers

[GlassofSwine]

That was indeed their problem.  It was unbelievable they went after him—typical Aggie behavior ( but then how do you explain Nutts?). 

So, with Sherman long gone, there are few problems left for Arkansas fans to fa;; back on, remembering the old SWC.

A&M has always underachieved. Sherman wasn't the 1st coach to do poorly there. Do you know historically A&M has a 24% win percentage vs the SEC. A 38% win percentage against Arkansas. College Station has always been in the same place with the same recruiting base. They're up right now but even last year 9-4(4-4) has to be a disappointment after the previous year.

[LZH]

I think I'm gonna start driving around town in reverse so I can complain I'm only able to go 35 miles an hour

It might make you younger.

[Magic_Hogg]

Any football team that does not have proper cheerleaders is only going to go so far.  Aggies.   Sherman got informed by a recruit's mom that he was no longer the HC.  Had they stayed in the Big 12 they might have gotten a NC with Manziel.  I think long term we'll be all right.  We were in the SWC for decades with them and are ahead in the series.

Baylor is a new wrinkle in TX now.  Will be interesting to see how that goes.  TX is a big place we win and do what we need to do and we'll be okay recruiting wise.

[Hawgvillain]

We'll find out what kind of coach Sumlin is now, no doubt he can recruit.

He also fails to enforce discipline in any way.  If Manziel's antics weren't enough, consider that they've already lost 1/4 of their recruiting class from last year.

http://www.expressnews.com/sports/college_sports/aggies/article/Sumlin-s-strong-recruiting-keeping-pace-with-5532720.php

I could be wrong but I think they'll see a decent dropoff now that they've lost 3 first round draft picks on O.  It's crazy that we all wanted to kill Nutt for going 8-4 with 3 NFL RB but they had 3 first round picks on O and could only match that record.

[lefty08]

That 9 million in a 200 mile radius didn't matter before Johnny Manziel....and didn't make that hideous defense any better last year....and it won't matter in the coming years any more than it did before JM...

A&M, IMO, doesn't just come back to the pack this year, they come back to the middle of the pack....

A&m was middle of the pack WITH manziel, imo they will be far less without him

[Piggfoot]

I went back and included Dallas, Memphis, Kansas city  and St. Louis or about 300 miles.
Don't know how accurate but the population increased to 22 million.
and the interesting thing at 300 miles college station is 23 million

[Wildhog]

fify

It was an awful blow to our recruiting in Texas.  Before they joined, if you were from Texas and wanted to play in the SEC, Arkansas was a great option to stay close to home.  It was a fantastic selling point.  Now you don't even have to leave the state to play in the premiere CFB conference.

This ain't rocket surgery.

[popcornhog]

This is an interesting site. I entered College station with 200 mile radius.
It encloses Dallas, Waco, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Cristi, and almost out to Abilene.
College Station is smack in the middle of Texas' major population areas. What an advantage. I wonder why Frank wanted them in the SEC?

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

There is also a population module. After looking at the 200 mile radius, notice the kilometers. On the population module size the circle to the appropriate Kilometers.

Fayetteville's 200 mile radius has 6.2 million
College Station has 19 million

That's always been the case though, and we have, what like a .650 winning percentage against them?

[1960'sHogFan]

7 million is more than 19 million, 1000 miles is closer 200 miles, if you have the Luck of Les (maybe he is creating his own luck in this case).

The fastest rising 2016 QB PROSPECT ( maybe the best passer in LA since Ferguson ) was barely on the radar at LSU. No Problem, R-Kansas Les just hires his brother on his Support Staff at LSU!

THE RICH GET RICHER !   They find a Way!

[Dumb ole famrboy]

I played with the radius tool. Drew 200 mile radius around all SEC Schools Plus TCU, Ok State and Ok to add all BCS Schools which would intersect with UofA's radius.

Clarksville, Russelville, Hot Springs, Arkadelphia, Hope, Magnolia, Nashville, Atkins only fall in UofA's radius.

Paragould, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Benton, Malvern, Searcy, Camden, El Dorado, Conway, Morrilton, Maumelle, Batesville, Newport, Cabot only fall in the UofA's and Ole Miss's radius.

Texarkana only falls in UofA's and TCU's radius.

Harrison, Mtn Home - UofA'a and Mizzou's radius