You still have to win the games, no doubt. They dealt with "Clemsoning" for a long time and pushed that narrative, so there is value there.
You and their fans may not like it, but Michigan's Natty is diminished to me with all the illegal stuff they were caught doing. Ohio State's means less to me because they went and purchased a Natty. Have started talking about travel ball like this... it means zero to me that a bad ass 11U team goes and pulls kids from all over the Southeast or entire country. I mean, what does it mean to win a tournament simply because you found the best kids from all over, compared to growing, coaching, and buildinga team with more local kids? It's not impressive to me to bring a kid from California, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, and Iowa and win, over a team from Athens, Georgia placing 12 out of over 80 teams nationwide in a tournament. Winning is great, don't get me wrong, but you did nothing by having all the hand picked talent rather than coaching kids up to raise their game. I always talk about Saban's ability to find that two or three star and make him a first round pick.
Sorry, that got off the rails a bit with Ohio State's travel ball BS, but in the end it does not mean anything to me when a team beats nobody and then wants to claim Championship status. Look at Central Florida and their undefeated season. Do they deserve to be called Champions over us?