Money isn't the only factor in successful football program as evidenced my many well funded programs (I'm looking at you Texas). But is it a requirement for long term success?
How often do we see a consistently good program that isn't well funded? The only example I can think of is Boise State. For some reason they have been good despite coaching changes, small market, small budget, bad conference, less than stellar recruiting, etc. Yet somehow they have been consistently good.
Are there any other examples of teams without money that can put together a long string of success in modern college football? Usually if a poorly funded team is good it is because of a great coach and he usually gets snatched away pretty quickly and the team falls back to its previous mediocrity.