5 reasons Big 12 football will be better than ACC in 2019
By Dante Pryor
3. The state of Texas
There’s an argument to be made on whether Florida or Texas is the more fertile recruiting state, but one thing’s for sure: Texas is Big 12 country.
According to SBNation.com Texas and Florida are about even when it comes to their blue-chip recruit national share (Texas 12.6 percent, Florida 11.8 percent), because of the Big 12 schools in Texas — Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and TCU — many recruits not only stay in state, but they also stay in conference.
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On the other hand, two conferences share Florida: ACC and SEC. The ACC always shares recruits with another conference. Texas A&M did move to the SEC, but that hasn’t stopped Big 12 teams from getting the lion’s share of four- and five-star recruits from the state.
The No. 1 recruiting school in the SEC has never had more than four Texas recruits since Texas A&M joined the conference in 2011 — schools like Arkansas have more because of the old Southwest Conference ties.
Because of its sheer size, Texas has more blue-chip recruits than all the other states combined outside of Florida. It’s a good thing, too, since other states in the Big 12 don’t produce many Power Five level players.