In the Eighties, one might have asked, why would Texas join the Big Eight? But then the SEC made the move to 12, poaching Arkansas from the SWC. The Big 10 invited PSU and started courting Notre Dame hard. The PAC made overtures to Colorado and Texas. Everyone had a path to 12, and there was a risk to Texas to remain in a SWC that was solely regional and undersized. They would prefer a Texas centric conference, but presumably it would be worse to be an island for a remote conference. UT could have held the SWC together, but instead they recognized the need to jettison weak sisters and expand in size and footprint for national relevance. They chose to bring a Texas bloc to the Big Eight, their lifeboat.

And then over the next 15 years, they drilled holes in the lifeboat and watched CU, NU, A&M, and MU leave. So now they are in a similar situation 20 years later, in an undersized conference while other conferences explore expansion options. Plan A is muddle through and make it work, but if OU and others leave, they need a Plan B. They could always be an island to the Big 10 or PAC 10, but won't prefer that. They could join the SEC, but, although Texas is big, they are not bigger than the whole SEC. They would have to be one of many alpha dogs. They could always expand regionally and dominate the Texas-region G5s.

The option that most follows the 1996 precedence is bringing a Texas centric bloc to the PAC 12. The PAC is the only conference that would allow Texas to bring more than one "friend". It solves the conference size and relevancy issues while allowing a degree of Texas hegemony. Their only program-value peer would be USC, and they could stipulate a super-majority vote rule so the Texas bloc could protect Texas's interests. They could pull this off bringing either 4, 6, or 8 schools along, and not requiring the PAC to jettison anyone (a la the original Big Eight to Big 12 model). Contracts can be rewritten when there is money to be made. It may be as simple as the PAC network gets all the new rights, except the Texas tier 3 home rights that stay in the LHN. Preserve the LHN revenue for Texas grow the top top line for everyone else.

While not the most likely scenario, it is a plausible one. And if it happened, then 20 years from now the PAC18 would split with most of the old PAC8 joining the BigTen, leaving Texas with leftovers, again.