teams on the out of conference schedule and in the CFP and in bowls. If the BIG12 is beating the SEC, pac, big10, acc in head to head games then the parity and lack of "blue chip" team or whatever shouldn't matter. The PAC has multiple big name teams and they are still thought of as crap. It isn't the names in the conference that matter, its the play on the field. Texas is another example.
A program not stepping up and becoming a brand name wont hurt the conference if the conference wins.