Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Oh yeah, Stanford is tops on the West Coast for Tech and Engineering, for sure.  I've worked with several Stanford grads, most of them were fine, although one of them was hands-down the worst engineer I've ever encountered in the professional field.

It's funny how that happens. For law school Stanford is also--maybe obviously--great. But...also puts out a few folk who are too arrogant to put in the work.

Agree 100% regarding the UCs, and Cal Poly SLO is a very well-respected school. I don't know that Cal Poly Pomona holds a candle to it though.

Yeah, that's weird. I'm sure CP-Pomona is a fine school, but for whatever reason it's reputation is quite different than SLO. Lately I've heard SLO referred to as effectively a UC, at least from the standpoint of prestige.

I think they have an engineering school, but it's nothing of note.

In fact, my son is looking at colleges now and wants to go into engineering (likely nuclear), and there are people on his mom's side of the family suggesting he apply to USC. Uhh, no. Not a school worth going to for engineering. It'd be a complete waste of money.

USC is really good for degrees where networking at the undergraduate level is really important, like business school. And it's a good place to go for med school or law school. Or to go get an MBA if you're in tech.

But it's not factored into tech in any meaningful way. Stanford is the elite West Coast private school for that one...

It's a very good engineering school, but you'd be best served going to a UC-___________.

I mean, I don't really consider Texas an SEC team either, but for the purposes of television revenue, I'm pretty sure that ESPN does.

This is a great helmet final 4 matchup, and also a pretty outstanding "Hater's Ball" of college football.  I'm not sure there are 4 teams more universally hated than these 4.  Which is absolutely fantastic for TV ratings.

I don't know abou that, but Michigan would like you to hold their beer. 

I consider Penn State a helmet, but not a blue-blood.  But they're certainly very close and tend to draw a lot of national eyeballs, which is the real point I think you're making.

All time wins seems like the easiest way to do this and feels like it checks out:

Michigan
Alabama
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Texas
Oklahoma
USC

That's my list of the bluest of the blue bloods. They also each claim numberous national championships, most of which get some reasonable level of respect (Texas, at 4, is on the low-end for MNCs, but hard to ignore all those wins, and that long rivalry with OU).

After that it's helmet status, but probably not quite the cream of the crop.
Penn State, Nebraska, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida State.

I feel like after Georgia the picture gets a lot murkier, but still in the helmet category: LSU, Florida, Miami. But what about Clemson, Auburn, Washington, aTm...I think those are still helmet schools. VaTech? Not really. Arizona State? No. Michigan State? Meh. West Virginia? No. Utah? Only been in the big boy conferences for a few seconds. (Boise State doesn't count.) Wisconsin? I don't think so. Then it's just a jumble of major conference teams who have had their moments in the spotlight, some of which are right now.

I think Nebraska might have stayed in the higher group if it had stayed more relevant since joining the Big Ten. Penn State takes a back seat to those other three in its geographic neighborhood. Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame are just bigger names.

All time wins seems like the easiest way to do this and feels like it checks out:

Michigan
Alabama
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Texas
Oklahoma
USC

That's my list of the bluest of the blue bloods. They also each claim numberous national championships, most of which get some reasonable level of respect (Texas, at 4, is on the low-end for MNCs, but hard to ignore all those wins, and that long rivalry with OU).

After that it's helmet status, but probably not quite the cream of the crop.
Penn State, Nebraska, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida State.

I feel like after Georgia the picture gets a lot murkier, but still in the helmet category: LSU, Florida, Miami. But what about Clemson, Auburn, Washington, aTm...I think those are still helmet schools. VaTech? Not really. Arizona State? No. Michigan State? Meh. West Virginia? No. Utah? Only been in the big boy conferences for a few seconds. (Boise State doesn't count.) Wisconsin? I don't think so. Then it's just a jumble of major conference teams who have had their moments in the spotlight, some of which are right now.

I think Nebraska might have stayed in the higher group if it had stayed more relevant since joining the Big Ten. Penn State takes a back seat to those other three in its geographic neighborhood. Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame are just bigger names.

I’d remove Nebraska and UTenn and replace with Florida and LSU. Simply because I’m not sure that either team can ever get back to where they were. LSU and UF have won a lot this century. Kinda like how Minnesota dropped out of helmet team status back in the 1980’s.