ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski has a list of "top-10 coaching jobs in football" which lists the top jobs both from the world of college and NFL. The names in there are not all that surprising although certainly leaves a lot of room for argument (guess that's what lists are for).

I am not really interestied in discussing the merits of the list but thought these grafs re. the Notre Dame position were germane to lot of discussions we have had here on BN in recent months:

The Packers of college football. Or are the Packers the Notre Dame of the NFL?

The point is, Brian Kelly has shown what happens when you correctly leverage the power of your football brand. Notre Dame has its own TV network, a national recruiting network, 125 years of football tradition and facilities that rival or exceed those of its peers. The diploma means something, too.

As always, it's about getting players -- and ND's academic standards can eliminate some prospects. As does the winter weather. It is a program with high visibility, high expectations and its share of quirks.

But when properly operated, it is also a formidable program.

Hmm, leveraging the power of an established brand. I wonder if that is a concept familiar to the folks who are in charge of running UCLA while analyzing the state of Bruin basketball.

I know we don't have a TV network dedicated to us. But we do have a brand with unmatched tradition of championships. We have the campus. Our facilities are above average (should be much better given the $ we have invested on it in last few years) and we also have a powerful recruiting network based in LA (which Ben Howland has burned through alienating everyone in recent years).

If we get the right coach in place it's not going to take long for UCLA basketball to make a comeback.

GO BRUINS.