What I don't get is the fact that many of these old writers are still stuck in the 80's as far as perception is concerned. Look no further than A&M as a great example. How many sports writers today would still consider A&M one of the big boys in college football? More than most. But it's been nearly 20 years since they even won a conference championship, they haven't won a national title since the 1930's and only have two Heisman winners overall. Now the same sports writers will all claim TCU is in the "new money" category of football, ignoring the early days where TCU contributed a lot to the sport up until the 70's - 90's. Sure, three decades of mediocrity will kill the perception of a program, but what exactly has many of these so-called blue-chip programs done lately other than be ranked high early, and failed to deliver? Some of these programs haven't had the same level of success TCU has in the last 17 years, yet we're constantly judged by the teams we had during those 3 decades.
It's a perception problem, and I fail to see how any of this will change until the current crop of sports writers die off or Patterson wins multiple National Titles.
