1st season with no bowl money? Definitely not possible to win a real battle (30k+) vs. a BCS team or elite. In later seasons, you should really only battle BCS teams when you have a distance advantage on them so it's cheaper for you. I would literally never battle an elite at a non-BCS school, unless a player was <180 miles from me and >360 miles from the elite. Even then the $ spent will probably be about equal.
At a non-BCS your job is to get a few solid guys, and pickup the leftovers from the top teams. That alone will win you CCs in most non-BCS conferences. Then after you're established, you can maybe start battling, or switch to a BCS job (or sometimes even an elite) when a good job opens.