College Football 2014-15

I'd go with:

Alabama
Florida
Florida St
Ohio St
Michigan
Notre Dame
USC
Oklahoma
Texas

If you haven't even sniffed a title in the past 10-15 years, or go 2 or 3 new coaching staffs without getting near one, you're dangerously close to falling off the list. Nebraska probably recently fell off it, Michigan is getting really close. Give Michigan 5 more years of not being in the national title picture and they're off, Notre Dame is lucky they had that 1 good year where they played for a title, or they would be in the exact same boat as Nebraska currently. Alternately, play for multiple national titles and win at least one, and you're just about on the list. Oregon is about the only team not listed that is getting close. If they can win a national title in the next couple years, and maybe get into the playoff a couple more times, I'd add them.

edit - I guess LSU is close too, but Miles needs to at least get into a few playoffs(or win one) with a player-base that is 100% his own. His only title was a tad too close to the Saban tenure for my liking. I feel like LSU is slowly getting further away, rather than closer.

I think the main criteria comes down to proving that your program can compete for, and hopefully win multiple national titles under multiple different coaching staffs. That proves that your program is a juggernaut that is going to be successful almost regardless of who coaches(as long as they aren't a total trainwreck of a coach). But even if you have a history of that, going a couple decades in a row of being mediocre can ruin that past tradition(Nebraska, Michigan).

OUAriakas_sl said:

I agree with most of what you posted Joe, but the thing about blue bloods is that one good year can throw them right back onto the list. If Nebraska puts together one or two years of playoff level ball then everyone will talk about their resurgence and how good it is to have a traditional power back on top. Oregon will have to go through a 5-8 year stretch of true mediocrity and come out strong again on the other side to start being in the conversation, much like FSU just did with their most recent two years of success.

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That's why I definitely think it takes more than a decade of mediocrity, closer to two before a program like the ones I mentioned are down and gone for good from elite status. Florida State was down for the last 9-10 years of Bobby Bowdens tenure before Jimbo got them back in the picture. Florida definitely remembers the Ron Zook era that unsuccessfully bridged the gap between Spurrier and Urban Meyer title runs(but that was only 3 or 4 bad years, nowhere near a decade). Alabama was crap for most of the late 90s and early 2000s, Texas sucked hard for about 15 years in the late 80s & 90s, etc.

Programs can most definitely go down for a decade or so, it's the elite ones that eventually come roaring back like they never missed a beat. At this point, it's been 15 years since Nebraska was relevent, I dont know that they can come back, and Michigan has only had 2 good seasons in the past decade, 1 under Carr and 1 under Hoke, so they still have shown the occasional rare flash of being elite, they haven't been able to sustain it to prove they are back. They're circling the drain as well.

Uhh, Florida St has 3 national titles in the past 20 years. Last year wasn't their first. They had 2 in the 90s.

Honestly, I put Tennessee in the same category as a Georgia, or Auburn, or LSU. Huge following, massive fanbase, recruits nationally and throughout their the majority of their history has been a nationally relevant team more often than not. But not *quite* on par with that top echelon of historical CFB teams like Alabama, Ohio St, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.

Tennessee just happens to be going through their crap period right now(and maybe coming out of it, but it's too early to tell for certain) that every team goes through at some point.

I think each power 5 conference has basically 2 "blue blood" teams. SEC has Alabama and FLorida, B10 has Ohio St & Michigan, B12 has Texas and Oklahoma, ACC has Florida St and we'll go ahead and give them Notre Dame, since ND is a partial member of the ACC now, and I guess the Pac 12 is the one conference with just USC, although they have the 1 team that is closest to joining the club in Oregon.