Ok, for the sake of argument let's not argue the the Conference Title angle. I think that's a bloated stat.
Each conference title must be viewed in its context. For example, Notre Dame has ZERO because they're an independent. And Miami's 1980s dynasty - for all my criticisms of it, which are many - didn't win conference titles, either, but that has no bearing on their greatness.
I believe the blue blood elite are those that are continually chosen for the New Years 6 bowls!
Ok. I'm not sure I agree but let me explain why.
It's not that I think your criterion is wrong, but it can be just as misleading as conference titles. UCLA made the Rose Bowl in 1983 because of a conference tie-in of the Pac Ten and Big Ten. Their record was 6-4-1......1/2 game WORSE than 7-4 Alabama, who was relegated to the Sun Bowl.
I mean, UCLA had a worse record than Alabama but thanks to conference tie-ins, they get a prestigious bowl and we get a bottom tier bowl?
Why? Because of agreements.
That's how I have always just programs. Sugar, Rose, and Orange first. Cotton, Fiesta and Peach next.
The Fiesta Bowl was NOT 'really' a prestigious bowl until the infamous 1987 game that decided the 86 champion. It was originally begun as a way to get the WAC teams of Frank Kush that nobody in the East paid attention to a bowl game. When Nebraska played in the 1975 Fiesta Bowl that was NOT a prestigious game.
And the Peach Bowl? Ahem.......
Cotton bowls can be skewed as it was just as big as the first three for half a century and just now recently regained its status as an elite bowl. Nebraska got its mail at the darn Orange Bowl for decades. That who you went to play when you went to Miami.
And why was Nebraska at the Orange Bowl? Because there was a Big Eight contract mandating it.
Beat OU......go to the Orange Bowl. Most years it really was that simple for Nebraska.