In many ways, yes. Any remote attempt at parity has been the exception. And the lack of parity is a big part of why ratings have been sinking for the last decade or so. General fans will not continue to tune in to watch the same handful of schools play the only meaningful games.
While I'm all for this move, as we should get our money while we can, I do think it hastens the inevitable relegation of college football to a low-tier niche entertainment product. ESPN built the SEC into the monster it is with their bullshit. The marketing worked. Now it's the only show in town and it makes sense to get on board. But their ploy has led to lower and lower ratings. The ship is already sinking and no one wants to acknowledge it.
ESPN answers to a publicly traded company (well two I guess), and quick dollars are all they give a shit about. As a college football fan I care more about the longevity of the sport, but the writing is on the wall. We'll still have college football a few decades from now, but it will be lucky to draw advertising dollars at the same rate as minor league baseball does now. We've seen the peak and it was around ten years ago or so. Hell, by that time college football may be on par with lacrosse or some other afterthought college sport. The people who care will all be dead.
Plenty has already been said here and elsewhere about the other contributing factors (kids not playing football, generational indifference among millennials, Gen Z), but this post is already longer than anyone will read so I'll add a bit more. Football in general will fade with Gen X, who were children in its heyday and were adults in its big money making years. Boomers and Gen X drive the sport. Boomers are already becoming irrelevant from an advertising standpoint, and and advertisers know that once Gen X leaves the sweet spot in terms of age for marketing, they will move their dollars elsewhere. You've seen the programming that AARP, Depends, and dick pill ads appear on. That will be college football in twenty years. ESPN is doing what it can to squeeze what the can out of the sport in its waning years, as they should. As fans, it will be sad to see it die off. We'll see some desperate last ditch effort to appeal to younger fans, but they already fucked that up with two generations. It's too late.