Yeah I mean it's going to take time if it happens at all. The goal this year was to win a Big 12 championship. We're on track, half a season to go. We'll see what happens. Can't build a program overnight, etc.
Anyway, all of that RB talk makes me super pissed about Quinten Joyner getting hurt before the season started, especially considering that we would also have had a true triple threat at RB, though our dual threat is doing pretty good and I'd probably place it in the top 10 in your list:
Cameron Dickey - 91c, 591y, 6.5ypc, 8td
J'Koby Williams - 68c, 358y, 5.3ypc, 4td
My point about OSU's WRs that I don't think you caught was that Illinois also bottled them up in a similar way and they don't have anything resembling an elite defense. That's all I was saying. They're obviously good and talented but they haven't been amazing by any measurement.
I've said this 100 times but it's not even close to just Cody Campbell donating, he's just the most visible guy/the one that set up the NIL collective. There are actually quite a few, most of them don't have their names in the headlines. Several have their names on facilities (namely Pat Mahomes and the guy who the football and basketball facilities are named after) and/or rooms in the facilities, but most prefer not to have their names in the news. Both of those guys could die tomorrow and it would continue completely unabated.
Also, no one is saying there is parity in football now, just that there's a lot more parity than there was 5 years ago, which is objectively true, at least at the FBS P4 level. That's actually a big part of the reason why no one has really separated themselves from the pack nationally (arguably Ohio State but again, arguably as we've discussed) and it's difficult to say with certainty if a number of teams are even good, Oregon being a great example. Ole Miss being another. Hell, they are ranked top 5 and have scraped by with 1-score wins over 3 of the worst P4 teams and have a shit defense.
Look at the B1G. Tell me who is objectively good in that conference outside of Ohio State and Indiana. You can't, because there are a million ifs and buts. Oregon only lost by 10 and got a few shots in, but if you watched that game they got physically put in a coffin by Indiana, a team that on paper has much less talent than they do, and it wasn't close. They got handled, I'm not sure Indiana wouldn't win 10 times out of 10 if they played that many in a row.
With the SEC, there is at least more data there to point to some good teams. Are any of them great? Bama looks like they are trending in that direction after getting embarrassed in the season opener. A&M at least has an impressive road win. Texas finally broke the seal, and IMO looked pretty good doing it, but Oklahoma is fucking dogshit and we all know it, despite their top 15 ranking. Tennessee has a really good RB room (as you mentioned) and a pretty good QB but their defense is absolutely horrendous. We know they're not winning anything.
The point I'm getting at is the reason everything seems so silly right now, like Ole Miss being top 5 even when everyone knows they're not, is the increased parity. Rankings are a disaster because no one knows where to put anyone outside of a few outliers. Computer models are probably far more reliable at this point. No one is saying true parity has come to college football, that would be silly, but the parity level has noticeably increased and it's goofy as hell to pretend otherwise.