I think your discussion of Iowa State, Oregon State and Washington State misses the mark a bit. Ask yourself this: how do these schools draw on the road? How often do non-conference powers play there? Have Miami, USC and Notre Dame ever played in Ames? Has Florida State ever gone to Corvallis? When was the last time Texas went to Pullman? Once you're done with that question, ask yourself this? How do these schools draw on the road? Do they bring in the biggest road-team draw of the year in football? Do their basketball opponents raise the price when they come to town? Maybe Creighton would raise the price for an Iowa State basketball game, but I think that's about it. Now ask yourself: Could any of those 3 schools get its own ESPN contract? Or if its conference disbanded, would it be running to the MWC or C-USA or whatever? You mention the enrollments at all 3 schools but neglect to mention enrollment at San Diego State, UNLV, Tulsa, UCF, etc. I'm pretty sure those programs would be chosen ahead of your examples if the conferences could hold a re-draft. BYU is in a whole different category and everyone in the sports business understands that. Where BYU-I and BYU-H don't have sports programs for their students and alums to support, BYU is effectively a school with an enrollment of 50k. It is the premier FBS school in a state of fairly rabid football fans with 5mn people known as US Mormondom. Yes, many other schools chip around the edges of that fan base (Utah, USC, Stanford, Boise State, Hawaii, etc) but when BYU plays a big game, the people of Mormondom both watch and buy tickets. The attendance figures are the final proof in the pudding on that. Here are 2017's numbers. BYU 56k Iowa State 58k WSU 32k Oregon St 35k