College Football Recruiting 2012: 3 Reasons SEC Will Remain Class of CFB

Football is just around the corner, but don’t expect things to be any different this time around. The SEC is still the top dog when it comes to college football, and it will continue its dominance all the way through the 2012 season.

SEC squads are having great recruiting success already with teams still battling it out for great players like wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham of Springfield, Mo.

Talks of conference expanding have dominated the past two weeks when it comes to college football news, with Texas A&M  almost guaranteed a spot in the SEC. Talks have simmered down, and right now Texas A&M isn't joining. As it stands right now, the SEC will stay the way it is, but who knows what the future holds when it comes to expanding conferences.

If conferences do expand, expect the SEC to pick up more notable schools than the other conferences and add even more prestige to an already dominant league.

For that and the fact that the 12 teams in the SEC are bringing in more high-level recruits these days, they might as well make the winner of the SEC championship game an automatic bid to play for the BCS national title.

I know it's still early as far as recruiting goes for next year, but these are three reasons the SEC will still be the cream of the crop for the 2012 season.

Players Who Have Already Committed

Eleven of ESPN’s top 50 prospects have already committed to the SEC with many players still deciding where to go.

Players that made the top 50 list and are committed to SEC schools are Alabama’s Eddie Williams, Florida’s D.J. Humphries, Alabama’s Brandon Greene, Georgia’s John Theus, Alabama’s Chris Black, Florida’s Jessamen Dunker, Auburn’s Ricardo Louis, Ole Miss’ Issac Gross, LSU’s Avery Johnson, Georgia’s Jonathan Taylor and South Carolina’s Shaq Roland.

Each year the SEC has sensational freshmen emerge and become household names. Just look at Julio Jones in 2008, Alshon Jeffery in 2009 and Marcus Lattimore and Aaron Murray last season. Look for some of these names to become household names as well.

Florida, Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina and LSU All in Top 12 Classes

According to ESPN’s top 10 Classes as of August 5, the schools I mentioned in the title of this slide are all in the top 12 as far as recruiting classes go.

Had Texas A&M joined the conference for next season, the SEC would have had six of the top recruiting classes. But then again, that’s just a fairy tale right now and is looking less likely to come to fruition each day.

The current SEC has five teams in the top 12, and that’s more than any other conference. So don’t expect the recent trend of dominant athletes dominating the national title game to end any time soon.

Recent Success Will Build Toward Future

All you have to tell a recruit nowadays is that you’ll have a chance to play in the SEC, and they are as good as advertised. Obviously this tactic doesn’t work every time, but it works more often than it doesn’t.

I’ve heard stories all the time about players that have went to Vanderbilt just because they wanted to play in the SEC, and didn’t get any offers from any of the other schools. Not a slight against Vanderbilt, but it’s the school that has had the least amount of success, so not wanting to go there is understandable.

Players follow football more than people think, and they know that the SEC is the best place to showcase their skills. The SEC will get players ready to play for the NFL, and if you go to an SEC school, chances are you’ll have a good chance at getting drafted and start playing on Sundays.

The SEC has become iconic because of its recent success in championship games and has become a dynasty in itself. This will be a valuable tool for the SEC to add more commitments to their top 50 list.