For those upset about the direction of college football, bemoaning the loss of parity between institutions, check out this 50 year old Texas Monthly article:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-southwest-conference/
To set the stage, in the mid ‘70s, like today, the main sources of AD revenue were ticket sales and media payouts. There were three major TV networks, and they contracted with the NCAA for games. The NCAA, being a democracy, placed limits on how many games per season any team could have (max of three per season and five every two years). There was also radio, but although appreciated, the income was much smaller.
Ticket sales were the biggest source, and the programs we lovingly call the IR8 struggled there, to the point they weren’t competitive.
(Fun aside- check out the OOC slates that the SWC smaller schools had in the ‘60s and ‘70s. They almost exclusively played P4 teams, and usually on the road, because 40% of an East Lansing gate was greater than 60% of a Waco gate).
1984: UGA and OU win lawsuit against NCAA over media rights. There are now more networks, and the conferences do the negotiating. Being in a conference with Texas is now more valuable than before. Teams can follow the KSU example and schedule patsies OOC without it hurting the bottom line.
The point of all this- current trends are just the next step in a constantly evolving competitive landscape. The big universities with large, enthusiastic (and hopefully well heeled) fanbases have always had an advantage and probably always will.