College football is a professional sport without salary caps or barriers to player movement. Before the House settlement, P4 team salary costs ranged from a few million to mid 20’s, depending upon the size and generosity of alumni fanbases.
Now, P4 ADs need to budget for $20.5M and up. Texas is one of the very few schools with an AD than can absorb that expense with minimal pain (and still have a reservoir of alumni giving). That expense is damn near breaking ISU. OU is in between- their AD had layoffs to free up money, and they rolled their collective into the AD. They do not have much to give above and beyond the House settlement amount.
There are other programs in the funding space occupied by OU, and many have championship aspirations. Some, located in regions with extreme concentrations of talent, will be ok. (They will still have to pay their stars market rates, but they can get young high talent prospects enrolled affordable, because of their region)
OU is not located in a talent rich region. For decades, it has gotten around that, by claiming north Texas as its region. That strategy doesn’t work as well now. Texas and TAMU also claim that region, and have more money to offer. Hell, TT and SMU may also have more money to offer.
This is a new game, and I don’t know that they have a solution.