re: Why don't schools just do what Bama is doing?

Not exactly luck. George Denny was actively trying to create football power. Bama was the first Southern school to use radio and newspapers advertisements. He went and hired Wallace Wade. Followed that up with Frank Thomas, who coached Bear Bryant.

We were lucky to have a President who could see the future of football being a big time sport, decided to pursue it and succeeded in his methods. Since then, we've been established as a power that can attract and retain big name coaches, and even steal them away from NFL teams (more than once). These great coaches don't just fall in our lap.