Talent is the key.....and exposure is a key to bringing in talent.

Prior to that (pre-ESPN) you had some regional games on local TV (ACC game of the week on Raycom in DC) and maybe 2 national games on Saturday afternoon. Those games were always one of a small handful of teams, thus the big name teams got the talent.

ESPN came in as part of the mid 80s breakup of NCAA FB and began to create opportunities for exposure beyond the local market for more schools. Couple that with a wave of big name programs getting in trouble in the mid 90s and schools like VT and KS State had a shot. Beamer and Weaver jumped at the chance to ride the ESPN hype train and made us relevant. Add the BCA/BCS in it's original form that took some of the sportwriter's anointing the winners out of the process and more teams had a chance. Most of the winners were still the same old teams, but at least it felt like there were more teams in the discussion and you felt like you had a shot.

It turned again and the playoff just pushed in back to a small handful of teams that get all the exposure, with predictable results.