As much as I hate to say it. These sec programs are ALL in on football. The town, the state, the school all in. Alabama student enrollment has almost doubled since saban is there. They build or Reno a building every 60 days. Every sec school is trying to catch them.
It seems like we are just chillin.
Exactly. You described the problem. These kids like and admire the Canes coaches well in advance at camps, etc. Commitments flow. They fully intend to honor them.
But at that point they have never visited the campuses in college towns where football is everything. Once they get a taste of that environment, they are stunned. The stadium dominates campus and everything on campus flows from that stadium area. The entire town flows from campus. Then it happens again at a different school. All of a sudden the Canes campus -- while very nice in Coral Gables, stands out as a football practice field shoved into a small corner like an afterthought, and with the stadium 25 miles away. Around town you see a bustling city but the university is merely along for the ride, instead of dictating everything.
Why shouldn't that program instantly be devalued in their eyes? Imagine any other specialty and you see your major front and center at one college but perhaps 10th string somewhere else.
That won't matter to mid level kids who need to lock up something, but for elite kids who have their pick and who fully intend to make that major their livelihood, they'd have to be dunce not to evaluate every variable but prioritize the ones directly related to football.
Yesterday we had an administrator here succumb to the bags topic. Woe is us. We are clean but everyone else ruthlessly cheats and steals away the players we deserve.
I was laughing all the way through. That's how sad it has become when you invest everything into pumping up South Florida talent as absolute, but are pathetically willing to ignore big picture variables that play such a massive role in decision making.
College towns within fertile recruiting areas. That's where the edge is truly supreme.
As a USC alum I can tell you that although it is obviously not a college town, once you set foot on that campus it truly feels isolated, almost like a serene national park stuck inside south central Los Angeles. The separation and atmosphere are incredible. That doesn't describe the Miami campus at all. It is more like a blend. Plus Los Angeles is more devoted to USC and flooded with Trojan alums than the situation in Miami.
