Editors note: This story was originally published on June 3, 2018.

During the football offseason, our panel of insiders, columnists and contributors have been taking a look at some of the hottest topics around the Big 12/college football. Here's their latest round table discussion:

Looking back, did Texas A&M make a mistake going to the SEC? Wouldn't they have been more competitive in the Big 12 these last few years?

Tim Cowlishaw: I have always thought A&M overreacted, but I can't really blame the school and its people from overreacting after Texas got the Longhorn Network and just continued to bully the league around. That network was going to make more money for UT, but it was never going to be the recruiting tool that schools feared. Regardless, A&M makes a lot of money and gets new exposure by being in the SEC. It could be that they only win the SEC West in football once every 20 years, which is the thing that matters most to Aggies. But they hired Jimbo Fisher to see if they can do a little better than that.

Matt Mosley: The excitement over the SEC helped Sam Torn spearhead a $450 million renovation to Kyle Field. It got the Aggies out from under the Horns' shadow that DeLoss liked to cast. I think the fanbase has loved it. They now have spent enormous money on one of the few coaches out there who has a national title in Jimbo. I don't think you'll find many Aggies who think it was a mistake. The Big 12 doesn't really have the cachet of the SEC, and that's not going to change. The Ags are very happy. The alums seem happy. If they ever win something, it will go to another level.

Adam Grosbard: Maybe short-term it would have been a better fit to stay in the Big 12, but it's not like A&M sacrificed guaranteed Big 12 titles to go to the SEC. Long-term, the SEC was far and away the better option for A&M. No one is wondering about the SEC's long-term viability, or if someone is going to poach teams away. A&M got much more long-term security with the move and was very forward-thinking compared to the other Big 12 schools who stayed pat during the last round of realignment.

Ben Baby: I definitely understand both sides of this very expensive coin. A&M definitely would have been more competitive in the Big 12 during the Manziel era had the Aggies stayed. However, the longer the Aggies stayed in the SEC, they started building their team differently and changed its style of play to look less like a Big 12 team and more like an SEC squad.

Ultimately, I think the move was for the better, even though the on-field results have been consistently in the middle. A&M was able to become more of its own brand and joined arguably the top football conference in the country (I mean, both teams in last year's CFP title game were from the SEC).

Let's not forget that A&M wasn't exactly setting the world on fire in the Big 12. The Aggies' lone outright Big 12 title was in 1998, a solid 14 years before A&M switched conferences. The degree of difficulty is much tougher in the SEC, but I think A&M and its fans are very happy with the move.

Newy Scruggs: The climate at the time was very negative in the Big 12 when the Aggies decided to leave. The Texas Longhorns had reached an agreement with ESPN to launch the Longhorn Network. UT was not going to share any of that money with the conference and it really made the Aggies upset.

The SEC made a great offer and it allowed A&M to break away from UT and get a fantastic deal when it came to SEC revenue and eliminated the question about conference stability with the premier football conference in the country.

I will not presume the Aggies would have been more competitive in the Big 12 if they remained because if they stayed maybe Nebraska, Mizzou and Colorado never bolt.

I think Texas A&M made the right choice. They have excelled in other sports but football seems to be the only way certain fans judge Aggie success. And those fans forget the Aggies only won the Big 12 football championship one time and that was in 1998.

Chuck Carlton: Maybe. When you look at football, the Aggies have been pretty much the same program in the SEC that they were historically in the Big 12. And you don't judge conference membership by what-ifs. Texas A&M wanted to chart its own path from Texas and did with the move to the SEC. It generated tons of money in donations, redid Kyle Field and lured Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State with a huge contract. The Aggies seem like a pretty good cultural fit in the SEC, as well. Johnny Manziel was a godsend in terms of helping establishing A&M early in the new conference. It would be hard to find an Aggie who feels that the decision to join the SEC was a mistake, I would imagine.