Auburndawg - I want to buy some

blockquote>

Let me try it this way:

Location:

1. Lots of kids want to stay home. Having a large local population nearby ups the odds that great football players live near you.No shit. But you don't have the built-in "location" advantage of Florida, California, Texas, the southeast or the mid-atlantic, and in any event, Oregon is close enough to be "near". If Puget Sound area recruiting were the deciding factor, the Washington and Oregon schools would never be worth a shit.

2. Most kids at least want to stay in the same region. Schools in the south have great locations just by being in the south. Ditto OK and Neb. because the SW and Texas love football

Football players want to be at a program, be it in hot, flat and humid southeastern US or Texas, the rainy PNW, LA or the miserable midwest. They don't care. It's the program, which is what we're trying to get to the bottom of here. Once I say, "Norman, Oklahoma", the discussion is over.

3. If you're school is in a city that makes going to school fun, that's a bonus. We are talking about Iron Laws, not bonuses.

So if you are located in a cool city, in a large population center, in a region of the country that cares about college football, you have an ideal location. the location here is, at best, mediocre and not enough to base a nationally prominent tradition. when people talk about location, they are talking about a program's backyard as being full of sought after and elite d1a recruits. they are not talking about here.

Money: Money to build stuff and hire coaches. (Ask Cal about this)

Miami hasn't had it; Miami doesn't have it now. You can get around money if you have a program kids want to be at. Facilities seem to matter more these days, so I concede that you had better have a helluva lot of the other stuff if this one is missing.

Tradition: the most important Iron Law.

1. If a school and its boosters perceive itself to be a football school, then they will spend the money to rebuild stadiums and steal other school's coaches.

2. Kids know which schools are football schools and which ones aren't, and they want to play for the schools they see on TV

Oregon has money. Eugene sucks, but it is on the west coast. And they are building a tradition.

Washington has money. Seattle is a fantastic location. We see ourselves as a traditional power. Clearly kids like Shaq Thompson, ASJ, Kasen Williams, John Ross, etc., also see UW as a football school, but more winning is necessary to fully reestablish the tradition that has been lost the past 10 years.

what we see ourselves as is meaningless. who is really to say, but my sense is that we're not perceived as a national power, and I'm not sure we were ever perceived as an elite national power. I think all those names mean is that the staff can recruit well at times (and at other times not so much).

Eugene is Olympia but a little bigger. All the rivalry shit aside, I've been there and it doesn't suck. Norman Oklahoma sucks. Gilroy California sucks. Aberdeen Washington sucks. Moses Lake sucks. I'm not sure Eugene actually sucks. It's not a metropolitan city, but if that were relevant, there would be more great programs on the east coast and about 3/4s of the eltite programs today would not be. The truth is, having your school in a metropolitan area is a detail. The proof is in the pudding. Just look at the top 25.

FInally, if tradition were the most important variable, again, how did Miami or Florida State get here? How did Florida, a perennial sleeper in the SEC, become a national force? Hell, how did Oregon do it?

If you haven't figured it out yet, it's coaching. If your program doesn't have the cache to attract a an established guy, you need to get lucky and grab someone under the radar who is doing it at a lesser program and is open to a promotion. About 98% of the successful programs did it that way. Has nothing to do with manifest destiny. That's for the dreamers.