you can build a solid program, win a lot of games, etc... but to be elite you have to be one of the chosen ones. The ones that no matter what they do they are talked about, show up in graphics about who's in for the playoff, climb the rankings for beating cupcakes early in the season, etc. The ones that move the money needle at a national level.

Beyond the ones that have the success to have earned it (AL, Clem, maybe GA, Oh State) biggest examples are Penn State, Michigan, TX, USC, OK, OR, FL, ND. Contenders are da U, FSU, Auburn, WI. If you're not one of them, you don't get the hype, the TV, etc to attract the best talent. Chances of competing consistently with 3/4 star players you develop against teams with 5 star players that can't crack the 2 deep are slim to none.

Frank and Jim built an amazing program at a time when CFB was expanding. Right time, right place. We jumped on the bandwagon with ESPN and rode it for all it was worth. The NCAA was punishing the elite teams for what they had been doing for decades, the talent was spread out and we owned the state, the best talent in the state was coming to Blacksburg, now it's going to the schools noted above. CFB got huge, the money got enormous and the NCAA hasn't punished an elite program in 20 years, their benefactors at the Mouse won't allow it.

Until something major happens, nothing will change. Look at CBB, a shoe company and coaches were involved in racketeering and nothing changed. A coach everyone was tired of (Petino) is gone and a couple assistants lost their jobs, but nothing has changed and interestingly no one from Nike or any Nike schools were ever implicated (Addidas wasn't bidding against itself). So, it will take something monumental that can't be swept under the rug by media and politicians with a vested interest in the status quo. More likely that the elite splits off and the rest of us become the equivalent of 1aa.