I could care less about "brand equity" from a historic sense....that's like saying the Dallas Cowboys should be categorized as a KING in the NFL, yet they haven't really done squat since '95. If the premise is 'historic' brand equity, then yes they should be considered a KING.
However, if the author's premise is about 'recent' brand equity ...(I'd say no more than the past decade or so)... then he shouldn't be including Penn State, Miami, UCLA and others in the upper echelon of his pecking order.
Here is what the author of the article stated: "As a refresher: The goal here is not to rank programs based on winning percentage, national championships, bowl wins or any other quantitative measure, though those things undoubtedly matter."
He goes on to describe how recognizable Michigan's helmet would be in Montana vs Georgia's helmet. So right there it tells me this is just another traditional power (ie 'historic' brand equity) article and nothing more.
For me, I prefer 'recent' equity based on level of play the past 10-12 years.
With that in mind, I'd say today there can only be ONE (1) KING: Alabama
....with Barons being: Florida, Texas, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon
Knights: ~30-35 programs (of which Iowa is one)
*Squires: ~30-35 programs
Peasants: the remaining ~40-50 programs
*the article didn't have this category, but it should have.