In the lower divisions - recruiting close to home nets an advantage due to recruiting dollars. In D1AA you start to see the differences in prestige of D1AA vs D1A.

Question is: In D1A is the cahallenge for recruits more about distance competitions or about competitions with higher prestige schools closer to your school?

Both but I think the distance has a larger factor. In DIA though most schools are in such close proximity that if you're in an area with quite a few solid teams then prestige will play a factor. If you're in an area dominated by sims (rarely) then distance plays a much larger factor

I agree, I would say both.

all areas can field BCS teams but its knowing how to properly recruit those areas.  I feel a NT can be won at every BCS school if the timing is right with the elites in your conf being down while your up,  but I will say that the B10 and SEC are going to be by far the harder roads having to go thru 4 elites.

I've made a NC game appearance at Duke (didn't win the game, however).  That included a conference schedule with Miami (cebrake), Va Tech and FSU.  

Back to the original question, I'll agree that both play a factor.  Personally, I usually stay within my 360 mile radius (unless there's a good prospect being recruited by only sims (which isn't often), and I've got the extra recruiting $$ to cover the distance cost).

coached at michigan state, good example of how both come into play.  at the time, the wisconsin coach wasn't very strong and michigan, notre dame, ohio state and northwestern were all great.  if a recruit was in wisconsin or minnesota i put a premium on that player and it worked out well.  next in line were local, day 2 recruits not targeted by any of those said teams.  

I used to look for 1aa teams by checking to see the quality of coaches in 1a in that recruiting area.  If there were real good coaches in the area, then i knew there would be plenty of 1aa talent available.  If there were lousy 1a coaches in the area, then I knew those coaches would be too busy going after 1aa recruits and leave me with nothing.