I've been listening to a lot of Andy Staples podcast during the coaching turmoil (he thinks Heupel has done a fantastic job, BTW), and he keeps saying with OU that the issue they've had is on the line of scrimmage, because those 5-star lineman don't want to play in the Big 12. He seems to think that once OU moves to the SEC then they will be a legitimate threat to add those players who have been the missing piece. A lot of that reasoning would apply to Texas as well, and in this class you are starting to see Texas pull some D-linemen from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.
From what I am reading about the Texas NIL deal, they expect it to reach an endowment of $150 million, to the point where they can pay every football player on the team a base stipend of $100k per year, and the better players can then add to that with individual deals within corporate-heavy Austin. Remember, Cam Newton was allegedly bought for Auburn by for $180k, and now the back up linebacker will be getting $100k every year. This completely dwarfs the scale of the traditional bag game system. Obviously, this is all just in the startup phase, but if it comes to fruition and Texas gets a reasonably competent coach (not sure if Sark fills that bill), then they are going to be poised to hold their own in the SEC.
