i agree that UK is nothing like UCLA. when i've coached UK, you are surrounded on all sides, and there are typically a lot of b+/a- type school in the area that make things more complicated.
in 2.0 i think it was more pronounced - that 200 mile radius was just so overwhelmingly important, and the 360. in 3.0, i think you have a bit more tolerance built into the system. still, i definitely feel like each area has its own flavor, and its not really set world over world. each world has its own best school / area that changes over time.
also, baseline prestige is overrated. one of the best jobs i ever had was texas a&m (b-? b?) with weak texas schools. LSU and oklahoma schools overlap in the market, but if you can hit a texas a&m type school with like an a- at texas or baylor and a b+ at lsu and just 1 a+ from the OK schools, you could really haul it in. i feel like LSU is in the same boat, that southern SEC area can be *really* weak when you get the right arrangement of coaches. in one world we would reach down regularly into that area, i think from michigan state it was, or maybe ohio state. just depends who happens to be there - have an a+ lsu with a couple a/a+ texas schools, and a few good (b+/a- ish) schools in that auburn/bama/vandy/tn/georgia range, along with a strong ga tech (which is a very solid school on average and frequently is staffed by a strong coach), and its a different story. but there is potential for some dominance.
it also used to matter way more in 2.0 because of conference battling - being on the outskirts of the conference was way better. so MSU had a major advantage because none of the local schools would even battle you (although, you couldn't really exactly battle them, either - but this matters less when you are the big dog). i really like that conference battling is a thing now, that was super messed up in 2.0.
anyway, other than the A+ schools mentioned above, i think the following have some really good potential -
- texas schools and lsu (not tech, although that matters less now - tech is straight garbage in 2.0, one of the worst big 6 up there with hawaii)
- miami fl (used to have huge advantage on PR players, and on miami players over florida - may be less attractive now)
- ga tech
- colorado (i won a title on C recruited players once, at colorado - if you get a weaker MWC, you can absolutely clean up)
i thought a++ prestige still existed based on some early data from my time back (which i guess i'm a little over 2 months now). but now not so sure. i do question whether an a++++ school can just destroy the world now, with the way that once you cap out a player, that's it. so that may make a+ baseline more useful than it used to be, at least at the really high end of d1 play, which is sort of the question here i guess.