Every year we get all this complaining about the assistant coaches and how all the top recruits are playing elsewhere. The problem goes a lot higher than the assistant coaches, the head coach, or even Jack Swarbrick IMO.
Follow the money, it's not that hard. Will winning a national championship make the university any more money? Will NOT winning a national championship, while maintaining academic integrity, COST the university money in the long run?
The system as it is right now is a cash cow. Why spend millions of more dollars to bump up the coaching staff and recruiting classes to the top 3 every year? You will be eating into your profit margin without any projected ROI to the bottom line as a university. And you will risk damaging your sterling reputation in the process. I believe that the Board of Trustees has made up their minds that the risk is too great: Why potentially compromise your reputation when there's no big money payoff to be had? Being a famous, historical museum piece of college football excellence is apparently far more lucrative than winning titles in today's corrupt and cutthroat landscape.
Until the mega-donor alumni/boosters show dissatisfaction by cutting off the money pipeline, or enrollment drops, or maybe if the TV contract isn't renewed, the coaching staff and the recruiting efforts are just fine as-is. IMHO.
Keep in mind that you have to take the list of composite Top 100 recruits and determine which ones actually qualify to attend Notre Dame, and could handle the academic rigors. Then narrow that short list down to the ones who don't want a new car or a pile of cash from the fabled "Bagman." Now you're dealing with the kids that the university is interested in bringing in to play football and represent Notre Dame.
It sucks for those of us who want to see the football team be one of the best in the country, but I think it's too successful of a business model for Notre Dame as a university the way it is.