Maybe they pick Talladega over Alabama State because it is a lot easier to get in school there. All they probably have to do is show up at Talladega. Straight band students. Some probably still have yet to graduate high school. I knew someone from my high school who went to Grambling because they immediately offered him a scholarship after hearing him perform with the high school jazz band. Academically, he wasn't prepared. Later on, he admitted to me that he should have gone to Southern due to our highly recognized jazz program, which was under the direction of Alvin Baptiste, with the likes of Branford Marsalis, Randy Jackson, Michael Ward, and others as his students. Due to his poor academic achievements, he didn't graduate from Grambling. I do believe he had a better chance at Southern as a music major, since music was pretty much everything to him. Sometimes kids pick schools based on a scholarship, but that's not always the best decision. IMO, Talladega is selling a lot of these kids a pipe dream of marching in their band, but once that is said and done, where to they go from there. Band is just a small part of what an university has to offer. Kids should recognize this and take advantage of the real opportunities academically. Travelling around the world with a school band is great, but it is definitely not everything, which is one of the reason why FAMU's band will probably never reach the 400 plus members they used to have again. In recent years, SU's band increased in size because during the Late Great Doc Greggs time, he intentionally kept the numbers down. He didn't care for big sloppy bands. I think Alabama State should take a page from his book and make the best of what they got. Adding members would just make it just that more sloppier.