From watching college sports for 50+ years......you do NOT, repeat, do NOT all of a sudden go from being average or worse to an absolute butt kicking outfit unless you cheat to get there. Witness Marshall under Pruett and Huckaby and UConn under Jim Calhoun and others...........
You do not win at a high level unless you are cheating. Every program even remotely on the national radar cheats. If a midmajor randomly starts performing at a high level (UNLV, Memphis, SMU, etc) they are just doing what the big boys do. We technically were busted for "cheating" under RR although our violation was pretty mild. We probably do much more than what we were busted for under RR. I remember when I was in school Noel Devine having a suspiciously nice car when I was there. I also remember our neighbors to the north, Pitt, having Dejuan Blair rumored to be sporting a brand new escalade around campus. I work with alums from SEC schools who claim the Jameis Winston crab incident was not stealing, the FSU program, like theirs simply has an "understanding" with the football players to allow them to have free groceries and Jameis was accidentally called out by a new employee who was not aware of the "agreement".
Everyone cheats, I'm done pretending to be outraged over it.