Recruiting and College Football Parity

I have always been only mildly interested in following college recruiting. To me, the game, understanding the technical aspects of the game, and seeing its execution is the more enjoyable part of the entire experience. This probably has to do with the same parts of my personality that sent me into engineering in the first place.
Over the last few weeks, I have noticed a great deal of general depression when it comes to Hokie Football recruiting. The inability of the coaching staff to "close the deal" on players has been mentioned, the top in-state players leaving to go to other schools, and the reasons for this have been discussed back and forth. But, I, being kind of new to the recruiting game, have a question:

Why do we expect recruiting parity with other teams?

College football is awesome, it really is. It has some of the best moments in sport that I have ever felt. Danny Coale is STILL open. But there is, and probably always will be a clear hierarchy in college football. Not that the same teams will always be great, but there will always be teams that are great for long periods of time. There isn't parity in college football. The NFL has structured its entire pay scale around the concept of parity (I know there is some debate about that, but it definitely helps) and it does help. Some teams are usually better, but not necessarily much better.

So if we don't have on-the-field parity with other teams, why would neutral (non-fan) recruits want to go to the team that isn't as good? And why is that the fault of the team that isn't as good? Using the Clark recruitment as an example, USC-e is a great football school with a consistently great team and a great college football head coach. Consistently in the running for the division title in the SEC East for the last few years, with passionate fans, great weather and potentially some other, less scrupulous, benefits. Why do we blame our coaching staff for failing to land the kid when they don't have access to the same resources as the Old Ball Coach? Or am I missing something about recruiting in general? Anyway, I would love a sort of primer into the inside of recruiting and some thoughts on the process. Also, if I am wrong, that's ok. I like learning new things.