SEC money is spreading the talent across more teams in the SEC, which makes it harder to dominate. Its a two edged sword for those top teams.
Although we are behind in the arms race, the playing field is more level than it was (when teams cheated by paying players anyway). Big12 does not have a dominant team, but the top teams are pretty good and I am curious how they stack up against the other leagues through bowl season. Give them a few more years and the NIL/recruiting dust will may settle and I like BYU's chances of staying in the upper quadrant of the leauge given how we've competed with what we have talent wise (good talent, but still room to improve)
Since the best team in the PAC 12 for the last decade is almost last in the Big12, it must be a pretty good conference top to bottom.