I think it's hard to wrap your head around this fact. If a booster wanted it bad enough, he could put out $100 million to NIL and outspend the rest of CFB handily and just basically buy (or at least attempt to buy) himself a championship, which is kinda what the Yankees did for a number of years. They just outspent everybody and paid the tax and took home the hardware.
We all know it doesn't always work out, talent =/= championships by itself. So much more goes into it, which is where great coaches like Saban and Dabo have differentiated themselves. I put Bob Stoops in this category as well. Nobody will dispute that you have to have the talent, but you also need team chemistry, great coaching, a little luck usually, and at least 1-3 players that are just superstars in their own right like VY and Joe Burrow. I don't think anybody would think that LSU or UT would have won it all without those two guys on their team. Alabama has been able to do it mostly without an elite QB, but they were so deep everywhere else that it didn't matter.
