LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – During much of this past offseason, the talk of the college football world was conference realignment. The topic sparked heated debate across the college football landscape, but does it matter to players who signed with or are being pursued by the teams that are switching conferences? Oklahoma, Texas and USC signees and targets at the Under Armour Next All-America Game weighed in.
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WILL CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "I think it's exciting. I think both schools (USC and Texas) are going to have a little bit more exposure by going to those new respective conferences. Nothing against the conferences that they were in before. They're all great conferences, but I think it'd be a good move. I think it'll give a lot more exposure to those schools, so I'm excited to see what happens."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "I think the rivalries definitely run deep. They probably don't have as much impact now as they did back before the conference changes and before the new wave of college football. I think there's definitely hate between schools."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "It definitely is an attraction for me because a big goal for everyone is trying to go to the NFL. NFL teams want to see people playing against the best of the best. The SEC is the best of the best, let's be honest. So it's big because you want to get that notice from NFL teams. You also want to compete against the best because you're only going to get better if you go up against the best people."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "No."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "Maybe a tiny bit. I've always wanted to play in the SEC. Growing up in Georgia, I was big Georgia guy and big SEC guy. Definitely the move to the SEC was appealing to me."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "It honestly does not. Growing up as an OU fan, no not really. The Texas game is still going to happen, so I'm excited for that because that's our biggest rivalry, but other games don't really mean this much to me."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "A little bit. I think it'd be good to play in the best conference in football. I think that's definitely a plus."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "The only one that won't really be happening is Oklahoma State. I would imagine the Texas one would still be going on, but it doesn't really matter to me."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "We're excited about the competition. You're going to play competition for the rest of your life if you want to play at the next level, so I'm excited to be able to take that opportunity and play against good competition."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "I think we'll still have them with UCLA, and we'll make some new ones and play some good competition."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "No it didn't."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "I'm not worried about that. Whoever we play, that's who we need to play."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "No, it doesn't play a big factor because of non-conference games and the schools that I'm considering do have great schedules."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "Not really."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "It didn't really matter to me because the SEC is like the top competition in college football. Who wouldn't want to go play the top guys and compete?"
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "I think once we go to the SEC we still might play OU, so that's the only rivalry I care about. The Red River Rivalry is the one I grew up watching, and I just don't like OU."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "No, it didn't matter at all. Competition is competition. Humans is humans. We all work hard for what we want."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "None of that matters to me. I just want to come out and play ball."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "I would say that was a big part of it really, because I really wanted to go to the SEC and that was something that was big for me. With them going to the SEC, being a part of that I thought that was really good."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "No, not really because we're going to create new ones. People are going to hate us. People won't like us. It is what it is but it's college football. Rivalry or not, you need to bring it every game so it really doesn't matter that much."
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DID CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT IMPACT YOUR COMMITMENT? "No, because I was just looking at the running back play and seeing how Bijan Robinson is the first back on the (NFL Draft) board and him doing it in the Big 12 just made me think I could do it, too."
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT SOME TRADITIONAL RIVALRIES WON'T BE PLAYED ANYMORE? "No."
