They HAD the opportunity to compete for championships, but certain feckless administrators have allowed the SEC and Big 10 to slowly close that door to the point that it's barely open a sliver at this point. As things stand now, there will NEVER, and I mean NEVER, be another national champion from outside the SEC/Big 10 Cartel, except maybe Notre Dame, and, frankly, even that's a long shot. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what I think/want - I just look to history to tell me what's going to happen, and what I assume is going to happen is the same thing that's been happening. Everyone in the college football landscape with the ability to fight back against the cancer that's killing the sport will just keep bowing down to and appeasing the SEC and Big 10 at every opportunity so they can lick up whatever little crumbs they leave on the floor, and will just pretend like they're actually competing in the same division, right up until the point where the SEC and Big 10 break completely away, and they're just left behind anyway.