In general, you stir things up and the good schools will rise to the top. Many lower-level teams have been propped up by better conferences, and when re-alignment happens they get dropped to the bottom. Newer and better schools get a chance to move up and take their place.

Being left out of the Big 12 ten years ago was frustrating, but in moving to independence we did move up a little. There is a chance that with the upcoming re-alignment we can take another small step up. But, what we do know is that the remaining 8 will take a big step down, and in that sense we will have made progress.

The only problem is that the number of "elite" spots has now also been reduced as the power conferences consolidate. It is a race to see if we can land a big spot before the number is further reduced - or at least move past others as their conferences get raided.

We are a good school, so chaos can be good for us, and help us overcome the alignments that were formed ~100 years ago, and do not reflect today's reality.