Quarterback Kyle Allen (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) has picked Texas A&M over UCLA, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma State, and his reasons why won't make any Pac-12 coaches or fans happy.
Allen wanted to play in the SEC.
"That played a big part," Allen said. "If you want to be the best, you have to compete against the best. A lot of quarterbacks come out of the Pac-12 and Big 12, where they throw the ball around, but they don't play against as good of defenses. A&M does the same thing those programs do on offense but they do it against the best defenses in the country. My dream is to someday become an NFL quarterback, and I want the best training and the best preparation for that. That's in the SEC."
Allen obviously views himself as stepping in for quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Allen, the No. 2 quarterback in the West behind Keller Chryst of Palo Alto, Calif., is the seventh of the West's top-30 players to commit, and just three of those committed players are staying in the Pac-12.
So far. As we know, oral commitments are non-binding and guys can change their minds.
What we might be seeing, however, is seven consecutive national titles cementing in young athletes' minds the supremacy of the SEC. Understand that the average 18-year-old probably doesn't remember the epic USC-Texas national title game following the 2005 season. For this year's crew of young prospects, the SEC has been atop college football since they stopped watching "Yo Gabba Gabba!" on television.
Five or so years ago, there also was constant chatter about SEC supremacy, but it was mostly just fan talk. Pete Carroll and Mack Brown would smirk at it. Now it's a concrete aspect of the recruiting scene that other conferences must specifically address.
A good way to do that would be for a team from a conference outside the SEC to win the title this fall.
Paging Stanford and Oregon. Heck, even Ohio State.
