a subtle writing on the wall thing. The Pac 12 Network led to increased apathy as much as anything.
They needed to get their product in front of eyeballs like everyone else was doing and they couldn't get it done for whatever reason. The apathy that existed has only grown b/c of no one being able to see the games.
All I know is, if BYU were in the Pac 12, they would have purchased the Pac 12 Network and switched to whatever providers were offering it. DirecTV couldn't absorb the loss of 50k BYU fans. They probably didn't lose 50k TOTAL Pac 12 fans.