re: In the last 40 years Notre Dame has 1 NC.

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Spoken like a Texan 

Blue blood refers to the blood in the German / Russian line and transferred to the English via George the First. All of Europe (and most of the world) was built on monarchies or dictatorships and the Rule of Primogeniture. Under the custom only the first legitimate male heir could inherit. Children down the line - especially female and illegitimate - were excluded and had to live at the whim of their older brother of be disposed and penniless. 

Part of what made America great was this became the land of opportunity for the lesser children to make their own wealth and history outside of the formal courts of the day. As this country grew we grew without a noble class and were instead filled with a faux nobility based on wealth not bloodlines. As such you could go "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations" as privilege was lost as the wealth was lost. As most of the state of Texas is still new money it escapes the vestiges of old money in that true old money does not display outward signs of great wealth. 

Applied to sports means you have no real blue bloods as none are of noble birth but are creations of monetary wealth. As such they can rise and fall based on their ability to command the accumulation of wealth. While Harvard, Yale, and the other early "wealth" of sports have faded they still have wealth of enterprise and education. If the early east coast teams were still viable (from money) they would be buying teams to remain in the Top 20 or so football teams in the country. Hell, Vanderbilt was a football school prior to the rise of the state schools and beat Texas enough that they replaced Vanderbilt at the State Fair with Oklahoma. 

As for the current state of college football only a few really have kept their "factory" current and operating the whole time. Here are some observations of current and former teams with the "elite" air, current or lost. 

Chicago was the power till they focused on academics over athletics and nobody would call them a football "blueblood" today. Similar was Tulane who gave us the Sugar Bowl but declined the Rose Bowl that Alabama won as it interfered with academics. Bernie left Tulane to coach at Minnesota and became the Alabama of that era from WI to WWII. The absence of Chicago and Minnesota was the key reason Ohio State rose to prominence in the B1G. 

Of the combination of the old Big 8 and SWC the Oklahoma Sooners were, and still are, the best of the 4 teams from that area. Nebraska was a clear #2, Texas a clear #3, and Arkansas rounded out the #4 spot. While Texas may pretend to be the leader of the lot their biggest success came with just 2 coaches and bullying lots of their little brothers in the state for gaudy overall numbers. Sooners are still the top dog as evidenced by this years CFP while Texas still has limited success with more money and more in state talent. Nebraska will no longer be elite in a generation as they joined a conference that will always but Buckeyes and Wolverines ahead of them. Penn State is in a similar boat now, especially with Pittsburgh in a P5 where they can compete in state better. 

Early on the power in the SEC were the private schools like Tulane and Vanderbilt but clearly this no longer is the case. Historically Alabama and Tennessee dominated the conference and both clearly were elite through multiple decades and multiple coaches. Alabama wandered the desert with bad coaches but came up with a MNC often enough to never lose the top. Vols are quickly reaching a point where they will return to power or they will lose enough to maybe fall forever.

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