At Arkansas’ urging, the SEC has done away with one of its stupider rules and will now allow its schools to host recruits at neutral site games. That should be a real boon for Mark Richt and his staff, as it gives them a much easier way to entertain kids from south Georgia and north Florida at one of the best venues of the season.
The article notes that it took a super majority of league schools to pass the change, which makes me wonder if there was some earlier resistance to the move, because it’s hard to believe that Georgia and Florida wouldn’t have pushed for this before (and you can spare me the jokes about Georgia not wanting to host recruits at the Cocktail Party over the last 20 years, thanks). You think Alabama’s success at the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff had anything to do with the change in attitude?
Get The Picture 
It’s Bama’s league. We’re just happy to be here.
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How would you keep OUR recruits from being seen by THEIR coaches (and maybe even interacting) and vice-versa? Wouldn’t that give a window to the opposition about who we’re recruiting?
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What’s to stop that from happening in Athens? You don’t think these coaches already know which schools are recruiting these kids?
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I wouldnt think that would have much to do with anything. I dont pay for any recruiting sites, but every time I look at a prospect on a blog or online news article, they always seem to list a number or top x amount of schools.
However what about when a recruit is interested in FL and GA? Who gets to host him during that game?
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Other than the WLOCP, I could see this working against us. Since Georgia has so much HS talent, UGA has a built-in advantage as the state flagship school. This further opens the door to Georgia recruits for out-of-state sec teams when they play a neutral game at the Dome. It also takes away one disadvantage if other sec teams wish to consider neutral site games. Every time a neutral site game is added to any sec schedule it chips away at the ‘unique’ arrangement we have in Jax.
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No other neutral site game other than the Red River Shootout has the draw of the Cocktail Party. The season openers are big games, but they aren’t traditional games. I think this has much more value for us in Jacksonville than the downside for games in Atlanta.
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Remind me again how Alabama fared in those Kickoff Classics vs. how we’ve played in Jax?
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There’s nothing funny ’bout how we’ve played in Jax. the last 20 years.
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Note that we will only be able to use this every other year in Jacksonville….interesting to see if in a non-conference match-up whether the ‘home team only’ rule will apply..
It’s a nice add-on for us to be able to host kids at JAX, but we are talking sheer numbers and convenience here. Two SEC teams every year are going to have the opportunity to invite parents and their kids to the Dome or Dallas for a game…say what you want about recruiting hot beds…in terms of sheer numbers, Atlanta and Dallas are two of the three biggest spots for D1 talent in the country. I don’t know if it really impacts the 5 star and 4 star guys…they are going to go on visits to where they want to go. But you don’t think that a 3 star recruit (can they invite juniors) that is just getting started in the process isn’t going to jump at the idea of driving 30 minutes downtown to see a football game and meet Coach Saban, Dooley or Freese or whoever?
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