How exactly is that the rich getting richer?
Things like our bowl streak...and other teams just making post season appearances on tv, with no competition on tv, is what allows the "second tier" teams to get good recruits.
Imagine if your season ended 11/29 every year...and you went nowhere. No trips for the players....not extra 10-15 practices...no extra tv exposure...etc.
That would be how the rich get richer.
Also...if you think a playoff system would not include a rep from every D1 conference I think we are fooling ourselves.
Lastly....the NCAA Tourney in basketball, like the bowls, also has a deep reward system with 64 teams going to the tourney...at least 4 from each major conference.
Bottom line....as a GT fan I really could care less if SoCal, Oklahoma, or Alabama (after they lose to Florida) feel slighted...fine with me. Let them drop to a normal bowl so that we get a shot at pointing out their flaws and improving our conference standing instead of relying on only our conference champion to do that.
The powers that be wouldn't go for a playoff system that's larger than sixteen teams. Hell, it's hard enough to get them to go for a four team playoff. As it stands right now, some of those non-BCS teams are going to be on the outside looking in. Do you really think that if there was a playoff system, the winner of the Sun Belt conference @ 8-4 would get into the playoffs? Any system that comes up will more than likely have some type of special stipulation for those schools (which actually ties back into the original topic of this thread...)
I also mentioned in my post that there was a very easy way to retain the bowls for schools not competing in the playoff system. A system like this helps GT and other non-traditional schools because of the situation in the ACC and Big East this year. If the season ended today, Maryland (or miami), Oregon State, and Cincinnati would be going to the playoffs. That's two definite teams without that much tradition (one that moved up from CONFERENCE USA not too long ago), and possibly one more "getting their shot"
As far as those programs you mentioned slipping to "normal bowls", that doesn't happen with our current system. As it stands now, Florida, USC, and either Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma will get into a BCS game. One of them will most likely end up in the national title game. You're looking at one or two possibly slipping down to "normal" bowls for schools to have their shot. Bowls aren't just going to disappear from the world if there are playoffs instituted.
There are only 7 games needed for a playoff system. That's the Orange, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, National Title Game, and maybe the Cotton and Capital One Bowl (there can be bidding for the two extra bowls). That takes away only three to four bowls that would have been filled mostly by teams in the playoffs. If necessary, you can create two new bowls to replace the two that participate in the playoffs, or you could use a site more than once. Once for a playoff game, once for an actual Cotton Bowl game. There are plenty of options that accomodate retaining the bowls mostly as they are.
Trust me, if we stay above 7-5 every year, we will be in a bowl. If we're competing for a conference championship every year like we should and we expected when we hired CPJ, then we will be in a bowl. Hell, we have a better chance to play for a national title under those circumstances, because we don't have to worry about media perception, strength of schedule compared to the SEC, etc. All we have to do is take care of ourselves, win the conference, and we're there, playing for a shot at the national title,
controlling our own destiny. 
