I'm telling you, they wanted another Texas school to replace A&M and keep the count at 4....members did not want to only play one game in Texas some years. This is not speculation, I got this info directly from an athletic dept administrator that was involved. So rose bowl winning TCU was the best choice.
They hoped for a big school to fill the other spot, but WVU ended up being the best they could do. If they had picked BYU people would be saying the same things about a horrible mistake by picking an isolated school. BYU fans are myopic, but WVU football program rates at or above the Cougars in many people's minds and the east over west mentality won. To me, Louisville and WVU are similar choices...but the cards just a little closer. I think they were hoping to get Pitt with WVU but that failed.