re: How close do you think we are, realistically?

Everything is going to change in the next 9 months, and the difference between being a top 1~3 team versus a top ~10 team won't mean what it does today. 24 months ago, LSU hired away the coach from arguably the most storied program in all the land. Yes money, but Kelly also realized that realignment + portal was going to push ND even further away from elite status, while LSU is going to be in that number.