If I were a 5* recruit, I would want to go to a school that would prepare me for the NFL and has a chance of winning a National Championship. There are many schools that can do the former (VT is one of those). There are only a few schools that can do the latter (under the current CP system - AL, GA, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame to name a few). There are a few others that come to mind - OK, OSU, FSU, TexasA&M, FL, Miami that the media thinks should be in the running. VT and Penn State do not come to mind (at least not in the last 2 decades).
There have been discussions of expanding the CP to 12 teams. I agree with that as it would greatly expand the number of teams that could win a championship and there would be 11 games of relevance during the bowl season (rather than the 3 games under the current system). I would suggest the 10 conference champions be in the playoff and 2 at large teams. The 4 highest rated conference champions would receive a bye. The next 4 rated teams would host the bottom 4 teams. The winners would play the 4 bye teams. These games would be major bowl sites along with the semi-finals and championship game. Some argue that this would be too many games - but this would only add 1 additional game for the 2 teams that reach the championship than the current system. It could be 2 additional games if a team from the lower 8 makes the championship (but under the current system these teams have zero chance (since they are not in the playoffs at all). My point is that now you can play for your in-state school and have a chance to win a national championship. Wow, what a concept that conference championships matter!