SEC Expansion: How Will the National College Football Recruiting Scene Change?

SEC expansion is inevitable. It's going to happen sooner or later and the strongest conference in college football is going to get even stronger and more competitive.

With Texas A&M unofficially confirming that they are leaving the Big 12, the Aggies likely are SEC bound. But that would make the 12-team league a 13-school conference, so another school would likely be asked to join the SEC.

Only one? Maybe not. We could be on the verge of another round of serious conference re-alignment, and when you take into account this round involves the SEC, that only ups the ante to an all-time high.

One of the most important aspects of this potential SEC shakeup is how it would affect the recruiting side of things in college football. The SEC constantly brings in and puts out top-tier talent every year, so this is prime aspect of the potential expansion.

On a national level, teams like Florida and Alabama likely have the most national pull. But there's also recruiting juggernauts Auburn, LSU, Tennessee and Georgia.

With the potential expansion creating growth in the SEC geographically, especially if Texas A&M joins, this will only grow the conference's national appeal to recruits.

Texas A&M would give SEC schools consistent access and important exposure to Texas, which is one of the very, very elite states to go to for recruiting talent. The Lone Star state is a football recruiting hotbed and the national level of SEC recruiting would be exponentially grown and enhanced.

With recruiting in the SEC being so uber-competitive, fiercely intense, legendary and just downright insane, the national scene would change in a way that I would say maybe a third to closer to a half of the elite five-star recruits would end up at an SEC school each year.

Twelve players out of the top 50 in the ESPNU 150 are committed to an SEC school. Florida State, another program rumored to be interested moving to the SEC, has three commits in the top 50. The 20 "undecided" recruits are just about all considering at least one SEC school and many of them are considering multiple SEC schools.

Sure you have your national non-SEC recruiting powers like USC, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma and Miami.

But many recruits today want to get to the NFL as soon as possible, what would be better for exposure than to go play well in the toughest conference against the toughest competition to prepare you for the NFL?

Sure scouts go to every school in the country to find players, but as a former member of two NFL scouting departments, I know playing in the SEC is viewed favorably by scouts, personnel directors and GMs.

In all, my point is that SEC expansion will change the national recruiting scene in a way that will strengthen the overall dominance in recruiting and talent in the conference to all-time highs.

Get ready folks, as we may be in an age where one or two out of every three recruits could be SEC bound.