I've wondered this myself. As I see it, no matter how many games we win and how much we upgrade our facilities, we are still going to be well down the pecking order going into the state of Texas. I don't ever see us beating UT, aTm, or OU for recruits down there, and more often then not I don't see us beating TT, Baylor, TCU, or OSU either. And who knows what sort of inroads some neighboring SEC powers may start to make.
I agree that Texas produces better recruits than the Midwest in general, but what if we start comparing top prospects in the Midwest to sixth or seventh tier Texas recruits.
KU and Illinois are awful right now. Mizzou looks like they are in trouble as well. Minnesota has been mediocre at best. Nebby is a shadow of their former self. Iowa and Wisconsin seem to be taking a few steps back as well. The Dakotas don't have a single BCS school between them. Given that, if we can keep winning games and dumping money into our facilities, why can't we compete for and win some of the top recruits in these state? Outside of maybe the Chicago area, I don't think Ohio State, Michigan, and ND really recruit the Midwest all that much, so I really don't think the competition here would be as fierce as what we face trying to move up the chain in Texas.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't keep recruiting the southern states and trying to improve our position there. But I do think with some of the programs in our region really falling off while we seem to have some momentum, it would seem like a good time to start wrapping up some of the top tier talent available closer to home.