I have learned to be careful about sweeping generalizations regarding the future of college football programs. I maintain that the current state of college athletics, and specifically college football, is unsustainable, so the future is going to be very different than what we see today. What that is and when it comes, I have no idea. I can foresee the disruption. I have no real insights into what it will eventually resemble, and I don't believe anyone when they say with conviction what it will become. It's all speculation. My speculation would be we see further constrictions into who is actually competitive at the highest levels, and that the Big 10/SEC carve up the rest of college football and form a new association which displaces the NCAA in many respects. But that's speculation.
An individual like Larry Ellison getting involved in NIL, or someone with less net worth but willing to spend a much larger percentage of it to see their favorite team win, can quickly shift the dynamics of NIL the way it's currently executed. I still maintain the bottom line is you have to have the right coach. Finding and then keeping the right coach once you have him is still the biggest challenge of every program wanting to be elite. But having robust NIL support is now a critical component of that. Riley left OU and Saban stepped down at Alabama in part because of the resources to support them at their previous stint. Same thing with Brian Kelly to LSU and Jimbo Fisher to A&M, or DeBoer to Alabama. It's not that excellence can't be maintained through coaching changes. Look at Ohio State, which has still yet to make a truly bad hire since Woody Hayes in 1951. But you roll the dice every time. Every program not named Ohio State has gone through some lean years. Some, like us, more than we could possibly imagine.
I had hopes OU would maintain their Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger (who I thought was a home run hire...nope!) John Blake succession ad infinitum, but it did not work out that way, unfortunately. But I'm enjoying their current struggles and I hope they continue for the rest of my lifetime, however long or short that may be and whatever the cause.