For at least a decade the agreed wisdom was that programs with resources win games. Resources come in different forms, classic callouts like coaching, facilities, boosters, and the like. With the exception of a few - recruiting territory and fan base enthusiasm come to mind - they all boil down to one thing: money. He who has the most toys wins, and he who spends the most on college football wins.
This understood wisdom has always been of the correlative variety - point at the big name programs that consistently float around the top 10 and say “See, they all spend big money on college football, and they all succeed.