First and foremost, the idea that Clemson University is a blue blood is, if you spend 60-90 seconds thinking about it, just as laughable as the idea that Pitt is a blue blood. But, I'll leave that can of worms off to the side for a moment, because I fully understand that there is a large contingency of posters on this board that have some kind of weird fetish for Clemson, think they're the be all end all, and will rush to defend their honor at the drop of a hat. Frankly, I'm not interested in dredging up that argument here again - if you want to see what people not-on-this-board think about the idea of Clemson being a blue blood, go post that over on the CFB subreddit and see what kind of responses you get. Clemson is a well-run football program that has had recent national success, but that's going on a decade ago now. They're not a blue blood; if anything, they're the exact opposite of a blue blood - in their entire history, their zenith of success began about ten years ago and has been waning of late, stealing a bid to the CFP notwithstanding, and even then, they just got slapped around by Texas in a game that was never competitive. All "blue blood" talk aside, everything else in your posts has zero to do with what I posted before. I will repeat my point for you: everything anyone can think of to whine about that makes things hard for VT to compete, you can whine about at Clemson University, and it's usually worse. Clemson University is in South Carolina, a much worse-off state than Virginia by any applicable measure. They enroll 10k fewer undergrads annually than VT does, and they have (estimated) over 100k fewer living alumni. Their campus isn't in a major metro, and they're just as hard to get to as VT. Reality notwithstanding, they get knocked by national pundits because they're not the "flagship" state university, just like VT does. They play in the exact same crappy JV athletic conference that VT does. AND YET THEY HAVE MANAGED TO FIGURE THINGS OUT. Are they "playing at a different level than VT," as you put it? Yes, but that's because VT is apparently being administered and governed by abject morons that clearly do not understand how to fundraise, and who weren't even aware that VT's athletic budget was 14th of 14 public schools in the ACC, or how revenue sharing under the House settlement works. My point remains - If Clemson University can figure it out and make it work, then VT has zero excuses when it comes to resources and the ability to compete at the same level. Zero. Nada.