UConn just won the championship and is currently #1 in the country. Many mid majors and teams not in the B10 and SEC litter the top 25 and do well in the tourney and win championship without B10 or SEC resources.
There are teams in football that don’t make tons of money that have had their moments in the sun and there will be in the future as well. For football, probably not championships but playoffs and what not for sure.
I’ve told you this before, money is just a means to an end and that end is winning. That can be accomplished in many of the other sports without tons of money. It can be done in football as well save for maybe the ultimate goal of a football championship.
UConn and Duke are different in a few ways
First off, UConn has a massive donor
Second, they're good in baseball but besides BBall, don't really excel in anything else
They also body bag games for football to help fund bball
Duke is good at Lax, Soccer, and Bball.
To my knowledge, they don't have a massive donor like UConn
With all that being said, it'll be harder and harder for both to compete (especially UConn, as they're not going to the B12 or whatever leftover conference there will be for football like Duke likely will, putting them even farther behind the 8 ball money wise)
Not saying they'll totally suck, but something has to give if the $ discrepany is too high. You're seeing SEC and B1G usurping the ACC in bball already due to $. SEC is killing the ACC in baseball, in large part due to $. Facilities wise, it's not even a contest.
So if UConn wants to remain elite in bball, it'll likely come at the expense of every other sport. Duke can likely still be competiitve in a few, but football will certainly suffer
Money isn't everything, as you need elite coaching and school buy in to become and remain elite
But it's chicken egg - you aren't going to get, or at least retain, top coaches unless you have money
Same w/players now that NIL is prevalent
Granted, you'll have programs go all in on certain sports
UConn and Duke w/bball
Wake and Vandy w/baseball
But with a 50 + million / year deficit, it's very difficult to remain elite when these other schools have such a large $ advanatage