While college basketball fans are fully immersed in March Madness, college football fans of a handful of fan bases are entrenched in Arch Madness.
Arch Manning, the five-star prospect and No. 1 overall rated player in the class of 2023, is understandably the most sought after recruit in the country. However, although there are six schools in contention, many believe it to be a three-horse race for Manning between Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. His recruitment is as quiet as they come, as depending on which expert you ask, the school they cover is a lock to land him.
There has been no timetable given to suggest when Manning will announce where he is going, but we do know that he will be taking more visits. According to 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong, Manning is expected to visit Texas over the weekend for what will be his fifth visit to Austin.
However, that is not where 247Sports’ Cooper Petagna believes Texas holds the advantage over Georgia and Alabama. Petagna seems to be confident that the legacy associated with building a winner at Texas could be a very intriguing factor in favor of the Longhorns.
Whether this is enough to persuade Manning is yet to be seen, as the only reason Texas can offer is this is due to the fact that the program has been struggling for over a decade. Meanwhile, Georgia and Alabama have the resume of success on their side.
Something that does hurt Texas is that Manning will have a clear path to starting from day one at either Alabama or Georgia. The Longhorns on the other hand have Quinn Ewers, who Manning would likely sit behind for a year.
If Texas is able to turn their bad fortune around with Ewers, Manning may not have to be the one to bring them back to national relevancy, but more so the one to keep them at a high level.
Steve Sarkisian has the chance to nab one generational talent after another, but it will not be an easy task to fend of the big boys that are Alabama and Georgia.