Texas A&M's 2022 recruiting class will go down in infamy as one of the most torrid college sports tales in recent memory. For those who are unaware, the Aggies pulled in what is still the top-rated class of all time and were accused by a gobsmacked general public of illegally inducing every last one of them.
It wasn't just anonymous people on Twitter, either. Nick Saban was recorded as saying that A&M bought every player on their roster, prompting a fiery response from Jimbo Fisher in a press conference the following day.
The most enduring memory besides that was a $30 million figure— later shown to be entirely fabricated— that A&M was purported to have spent on their roster. This was put out by a user on an internet forum named "Sliced Bread," and it went extremely viral, also making it into a Jimbo presser.
I've covered in detail why the idea that A&M got this class by spending far over and above what everyone else in the country did is an idea that makes little sense. The $30 million figure is flat-out ridiculous.
Or, I guess, it was ridiculous.
No criticism to be found as Texas reportedly spending north of $35 million on current roster
Kirk Bohls of the Houston Chronicle reported today that the Longhorns will apparently be surpassing the fabricated mark attributed to the Aggies back in 2022.
Salary cap? Texas Longhorns will spend between $35-40 million on their football roster for 2025 https://t.co/yRW7pnXEYq via @houstonchron
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) April 30, 2025
Yet, to look around, there is simply no reaction similar to what we heard about A&M. There is no criticism or vitriol aimed at Texas— if there's any calumny or lament, it's aimed at NIL in general rather than the Longhorns.
So what's the difference? Years of this current system have certainly deadened people's reactions, as increasingly wild tales of figures that quarterbacks or receivers are pulling in get spread across the internet.
But it's still somewhat ironic that the Aggies were simply alleged to have done this by an anonymous user and were flamed; the Longhorns are confirmed to have done this by a legitimate reporter, and no one bats an eye.
In one way, that shows the difference between 2022 and 2025. In another, it speaks to the real reason that rumor spread so far when it did: animus towards A&M, not a basis in reality.