Is Baylor's football program where ours should ideally be?

[WayboDawg]

Hear me out.....Baylor and Mississippi State share a lot of similarities:

1. Both have historically been small fish in big conferences. Baylor all time record: 560–546–44 (.506), MSU all time record: 516–549–39 (.485)
2. Both have historically struggled against the big names in their conference. Baylor: Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State. MSU: Alabama, Auburn, LSU
3. They have similar sized student populations: Baylor:15,600, MSU: 20,400
4. Similar sized stadiums in previous years: Baylor Old Stadium: 50,000, Pre-Renovation Davis Wade: 55,000

Baylor (MSU) made a good coaching hire in Art Briles (Dan Mullen) who brought a high powered offensive scheme from the Houston Cougars (Florida Gators), and had moderate success at first. Then his relative unknown but athletic quarterback RG3 (Dak) had a breakout year and won the Heisman. Building upon that success and national notoriety, the Bears won their conference a few short years later and made their first BCS bowl appearance.

Haha, I know its a stretch, but I figured it would be amusing to read your responses at least.

 

[The Usual Suspect]

Baylor plays in a weaker conference, has more money than most public universities double their size, and is surrounded by Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. I like Briles, and thought Texas should have tried harder to get him. It is very much a system offense and drives me crazy to watch.

 

[WayboDawg]

Baylor plays in a weaker conference, has more money than most public universities double their size, and is surrounded by Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. I like Briles, and thought Texas should have tried harder to get him. It is very much a system offense and drives me crazy to watch.

I disagree about the weaker conference. Just look at Missouri and Texas A&M. Two traditional mid-tier teams in the Big 12 that had almost instant success at the highest level in the SEC.

And to counter your other point, consider how much money Texas has in comparison to Baylor. It's not like Baylor gets the absolute best athletes in Texas every year. They get the leftovers of what Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, and the big SEC schools don't want. Not to mention they have to compete for those leftovers with Texas Tech, TCU, SMU, Houston, and Rice. I'm sure their recruiting class rankings are pretty equal to what MSU gets at the end of the day.

 

[The Usual Suspect]

Texas A&M was awful until Jacke went there in the Mid 80's, and even then they won the BigXII once (I think) after it became BigXII, and were always UT's little bro. Missouri was in Big 8 until early 90's, I don't think they ever won the Big XII, could be wrong. MO wouldn't have been in Atlanta last year if in the SEC West. The majority of Baylor's existence was in the Southwest Conference which consisted of Rice, TCU, SMU, TX, TX A&M, Tech, Baylor, Ark, Houston.

Say what you want, as I said, Baylor has as much money as most Public Schools twice their size. Texas and A&M have about 50,000 students each. Baylor is made up of a lot of Doctors, Lawyers, etc. with cash. The former owner of the Astros sold the Astros for about $600M, and just paid for most of their new stadium for example. A lot of TX schools have money. I don't think their recruiting has been as good as MSU's in the past, but their teams haven't played our schedule.

 

[Sutterkane]

The Big 12 IS a weaker conference. They ended up winning, what, two BCS titles? How many championship games did they lose too? Most of those losses were lopsided if I recall as well.

Mizzou's first year they were awful. They won the east last year in arguably the weakest year for the rest of those teams combined in 30 years. Carolina was the best team in the east last year, they simply played a tougher schedule. They beat Mizzou in their house with a backup qb playing most of the game.

 

[engie]

Baylor is a decent example.

I'm more inclined to the Virginia Tech idea though -- since they have shown staying power over enough time that their perception is likely forever-changed.

South Carolina is another good example. As is Texas Tech for the most part.