This new ESPN list about the top 2026 recruits and where they fit is a perfect example of what’s wrong. They’ve got all these kids going to Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, and not a single mention of us. It’s the same old song. They’re just chasing the brand names, the same factories that have been buying talent for a decade. It reminds me of the late 90s when we had to scratch and claw for every recruit against Nebraska and Oklahoma, and the national guys never gave us a look then either.
They talk about “fit” like it’s some new analytics term. We knew about fit back when Gary Pinkel was building his classes. He found kids who wanted to be Tigers, who grew into the system over four years. That’s how you build a real program, not by swiping a credit card in the NIL marketplace or grabbing 50 guys from the portal like Oklahoma State is doing. That’s a fantasy football roster, not a team. What happened to developing your own? What happened to the pride of watching a three-star kid become an All-American by his senior year?
They list all these schools, but they’re missing the point entirely. A real fit is about heart, about wanting to be part of something for the long haul. It’s about building rivalries that mean something, not these soulless conference realignment matchups we’re stuck with now. They can keep their lists. We’ll keep building our way, the right way, even if nobody outside of Columbia ever notices until we beat them on the field.
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