its not that those teams cant beat the marquee teams, its that not enough people care to watch. this is about eyeballs.
for as bad as michigan and usc are this year, people watched that game. maryland and illinois beat both of them. when maryland plays illinois no one will care and hardly anyone will watch.
michigan, ohio state, penn state, usc, oregon (until phil knight dies), those are the teams people will watch now. you can throw ucla, michigan state, washington, nebraska, and maybe wisconsin and iowa in the mix there as name programs or programs with some attachment to a big program (like msu or ucla).
rutgers, maryland, purdue, indiana (i know this year is fun but lets be honest, that coach is moving on soon) northwestern, illinois, minnesota...not enough people care.
if they want to join the super league, theyre going to need to do an oregon amd get a sugar daddy to fund the program. otherwise they'll be relegated to the second division.