Toulon What college football should do to equalize these dirty recruiting advantages is have a draft just like pro for college, except college for high school.
It would be a whole lot easier to cut down on full scholarships to maybe 64 than a draft. I'm not for it but in 3-4 years you'd have more parity simply by spreading the talent around to more schools.
Make scholarship offers to incoming freshmen 4-year commitments from the schools unless you don't pull grades. The Big Ten has this rule but there is at least one other conference that makes these schollies annually renewable. Guess what, a better recruit at your position comes along next year and is projected to climb past you on the depth chart. The coaches tell you that you may never see the field on Saturday, they'll make some calls to help you find another school to transfer into, and yank your scholarship to be given to the new recruit. Brutal.
In regards to the dirty recruiting advantages you mentioned, quit penalizing the kids on the teams that are caught in those rare occasions (i.e. no tv or bowl appearances). Instead, kick the coaches of these guilty schools found with violations totally out of coaching or administration with lifetime bans. You'd sure as hell get their attention and in turn, all the coaches would pay a lot more attention to what is going on instead of turning a blind eye to what their assistants and recruiting coordinators are doing.
Dennis Dodd (a college football enthusiast that is a respected writer and commentator) this morning stated that ESPN is in no financial position to pony up double that it would take to buy the rights to an expanded playoff at this time. Of course, there are other broadcasting companies that would wave the cash for the opportunity to enter the fray but ESPN has the contract sealed tight for the next 7 years or so.
I'm just randomly sharing some initial thoughts but the NCAA needs to clean up its act and fairly level the playing field. I don't know what the system will look like in a few years.