Geography

TV market, only localized audience.

They aren't competitive in anything but football.

There's no advantage for big schools to play them in a conference.

BYU has national presence, only struggles in geography with WV. Competes regularly in other sports on a national level. Though our TV market isn't massive, we still have somewhat of a draw, though lower than a lot of P5s. If you combined our benefits, plus had we been dominant on the field, the Big12 would be "forced" to add us because of value. Utah went PAC12 because they added value. TCU went Big12 because they added value. These conferences also recognized they had a window of opportunity and these were the best 2 schools to fit their needs.