re: What makes you an ELITE football team?

There's a BIG difference between an elite football team and elite program. Auburn certainly is an elite football team but they aren't an elite football program right now. I'm not even sure if Alabama is an elite football program right now. They've had what one top 5 finish in the last 15 years. They've only been elite for two or three years. Florida is elite. USC was elite under Carroll. Oklahoma and Texas are elite. As much as people might disagree with this statement, Ohio State is elite under Tressel with their 8 BCS bowl game appearances in the last 9 years along with the highest winning percentage among all automatic BCS teams in the last 10 years. Alabama still has a long way to go to join that category.