something led them not to "fully explore BYU's fit in the Big 12" (Dan Beebe).

Desperate to save the conference, they reached out to WVU who were equally desperate to leave the BE. They had courted the ACC but had not been chosen.

They were members of an AQ conference and represented legitimacy for the Big 12's attempt to stay relevant.

TCU was added because it had accepted the BE invitation and the last thing a teetering conference needed was an AQ conference extending its footprint into Texas.