For years, we've been on the outside looking in, pulling ourselves up/along by our own bootstraps.

And those in the Power Conferences (and even one faux P5, looking at you, CRAP12), especially if they were winning, enjoyed this cycle:

Already enjoying multiple times the revenue of the G5
Winning gets them into better bowls (or even playoffs)
Better bowls also gets the schools AND conferences in them more money
More money means better and more staff, better facilities, larger venues
Winning also means more merch, better TV slots, etc, which also means more money

All of that means a decided advantage for recruiting and winning with those recruits
Repeat step 1

We are in step 1. If we go to the CFP, we are in step 2. Can we catch that updraft?