Rereading, I actually misread Rick's post restating Walt's position.

But correctly stating Walt's position, I still make the same two points:
1) If we get there, with the Houston TV market (that differentiates us tom Boise) and the academic reputation, we will get a P-5 invite
2) We've never actually been there, even in the Neely years

And no, OO, you don't put something like that in a coach's contract, for any number of reasons, not the least being that it would probably violate NCAA rules.

And as far as OO's point about differences in defining the next level, I don't really see the the differences as substantive because they are pretty much all pointed the same way. It's like a startup business, do you have it made when sales hit $10 million, $11 million, or $12 million? They're different statements, but they all keep you pointed in the same direction. If mine is one of the three formulations you identified, let me just say that I'd be happy with either of the other two, and I strongly suspect that the other two would be happy with mine. That being the case, the differences still seem more superficial than real.

As far as improving recruiting, we're lapping at the heels of Northwestern, Duke, and Vandy now. They're still ahead of us, but not nearly as far as they used to be. Do we really expect to out-recruit them, given their P-5 status? And if they're our ceiling, can we really get to any of the three definitions of "the next level" on recruiting alone? Heck, Duke, Northwestern, and Vandy haven't been to Walt's promised land except for brief periods when they overachieved, usually tied to specific coaches. I agree that the progress to date on the recruiting front has been remarkable. But we're not going to recruit our way into the top 50 or 40 or 25. We're going to have to play our way there by overachieving. And that's what I don't see Bailiff's teams doing. Not yet anyway. I hope it comes, because otherwise I'm very happy with David.

One other thought. I really get tired of the comments about Bailiff's "not wanting" or "not trying" to win. I don't think anything could be further from the truth. In particular, a lot of those comments have been directed toward coaching decisions that were perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.