re: Is Auburn an Elite Program?

I always like to use 1984 as a dividing point between an older era and the new era of CFB. That was the year of the huge Supreme Court case over television rights that replaced the NCAA with the CFA for a few years. That was also the first year in a very long time when a non-major team (BYU) snuck in and won a national title with the Gators facing sanctions. (Other people point to the Canes' 1983 title over Nebraska as being a big deal.)

Notre Dame is such a difficult call

They have frankly been god awful for a couple decades now... and yet they are on the short list for best program of all time when you go back to the 1900 stuff

They have ONE NC in the last 30 years... if you extend back to the 1960s that number goes up to 4... which sounds great till you realize that's one less than Miami and one more than LSU

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THE elite programs in the country are:

Alabama
Michigan
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Penn State
Texas
USC

That's it boys. Everybody else is at least one step down.

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If you had asked this question in 1980 you would be right. However, in 2010, you simply have to add Florida and LSU to that list. Does it really make sense that what is currently the most dominant conference in the history of college football would only have 1 team in the most dominant list?

The dividing point in historic and modern football has to be the rise of Miami. Any fan of college football history should really see the 30 for 30 on Miami. Pre-Miami, no schools recruited problem kids on a regular basis. Miami said frick it, we have the best athletes in the nation living within a 100 mile radius of us and character will not prevent us from putting them on a football team.

When Miami did that in the early 80's college football changed forever. They dominated teams with inner city, often gang connected kids and then FSU started doing it. When those two "nobody" schools began destroying the big boys, the traditional programs had to go after questionable recruits themselves to keep up.

And we wonder why teams like Florida and Georgia have roughly the same arrest rate on their football teams as there is in inner city Detroit.

Another big change was ESPN and the ability for more than just a handful of schools to be shown on tv. No longer did a kid from Louisiana have to go to Nebraska to get on tv. He could stay and play for LSU and get on tv. This is why Notre Dame is not as big of a deal anymore. Anything they can offer, 30 other schools can now offer whereas that was not the case 30 years ago.

Of course they are. That is why 53 years has elapsed since their last NC...

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When Miami did that in the early 80's college football changed forever. They dominated teams with inner city, often gang connected kids and then FSU started doing it. When those two "nobody" schools began destroying the big boys, the traditional programs had to go after questionable recruits themselves to keep up.

And we wonder why teams like Florida and Georgia have roughly the same arrest rate on their football teams as there is in inner city Detroit.

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I'd say it's because of lax discipline. Butch Davis put together a pro-bowl roster for the 2001 squad and I don't think they had a bunch of off the field issues. Coker allowed the program to go to hell, but that doesn't mean you can't have talented kids who can behave.