A "conference" should be a collection of relatively even teams with each member contributing roughly the same amount to the conference. Everyone should pitch in, and everyone should benefit.

The Big 12 was not like this. It was Texas and Oklahoma bringing in the bulk of the money, with the remaining teams living off the big 2. There was not equal contribution, and many of the locations were definite drawbacks. Moving to the SEC, there is a much more even contribution, even though true parity is not possible.

Same with the MWC and WAC back in the day - there was not an even contribution. So, it was in the interest of the teams bringing in the money to leave. It would have been much better for us if we went independent back in the mid-to-late 80s. Ultimately, we could not raise the level of the WAC to a power conference. It would have been much better to build ourselves up.

Whenever you have this imbalance, you are going to see teams move conferences. Looking at the Pac now, there is a huge imbalance with USC and others pulling in big money, while teams like Utah live off that money. Ultimately, USC is going to move to another conference or go independent. That type of skewed compensation can not last forever.