what's rigged about earning respect on the field of play?
the same issue exists for the PAC and to a certain extent, the Big 12 and could this season for the ACC
their conference schedules don't stack up and they get left out some seasons
A PAC, B12, or ACC team will not get left out at 13-0. Cincinnati probably will.
I'm saying is that in the world in which we live, you can't say "Oh I'm projected to be really good next year. Let me go schedule 4 P5 teams OOC for free so I have a resume." You have to be planning half a decade or more ahead. So do you schedule 4 P5 teams without a paycheck 5-10 years ahead when you hope to catch lightning in a bottle ONE of those 5-10 years? Which means most years you're scheduling 4 losses before you even get into conference play the other 9 out of 10 years. And if you do it without a paycheck, you're financially crippling your program. Paycheck games these days are probably close to $1M each, and Cincinnati team generates somewhere around $10M per year from football.
You say "just schedule more P5 OOC!" Well, they have to plan their schedule year-in year-out when every team knows you need 6+ wins to get to a bowl, winning records to keep positive perception of your program and recruiting, etc. If you're a G5 and you're starting in a 0-4 hole most years before you get to conference play, well then you're never going to get the recruits you need to push through that glass ceiling, because you need to go 6-2 in conference just to hit .500 ball.
You say "well if you have trouble scheduling P5, play them for free!" Well, in a world where football and [occasionally] men's basketball are the only revenue-generating sports for most schools, and men's basketball is probably questionable for most G5, you're asking them to turn away the revenue that is the lifeblood of their entire athletic department.
The net effect is that G5 is always going to be a glass ceiling, and there will ALWAYS be reasons to justify why a G5 in any given year should be kept outside the velvet ropes. The reasons will change as needed; the result will be the same.
Either fix the system, or make the glass ceiling a real ceiling and split off the P5.