Here is a simplified summary of what happened:
- The same summer that Utah went to the Pac-12 and we went Indy, Boise and TCU committed to join the Big East.

- A few months later, TCU and West Virginia went to the Big 12, but Boise stayed committed to the Big East. To back-fill for the departure of West Virginia, the Big East announced SDSU would join. BSU and SDSU were attracted to the Big East because of the BCS auto-bid.

- A few months later, Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville left for the ACC. There were only 5 remaining FBS schools in the Big East (not including SDSU and BSU) and the 9 religious-based basketball schools got together and the Big East announced they were officially dropping football.

- The football schools were basically forced out, so they started the AAC. The AAC was struggling to get a respectable TV deal and was about to lose the BCS auto-bid, so BSU and SDSU put the full-court press on BYU to join the AAC. BYU refused, which killed any chance at a decent TV deal and the BCS auto-bid. This led to the "BYU is hard to work with" comments from SDSU and the AAC commissioner. BSU and SDSU went back to the MWC with their tails between their legs. The AAC back-filled with a bunch of C-USA left-overs.