The “numbers” are what they are. What they will become is your supposition, and you don’t want to assume they will stay the same. That’s fine.

But there is little reason to think that these teams that enter the conference ranked are going to become worse teams as they acquire a manifold increase in resources and consistent recruiting exposure and the excitement of having joined the conference. On average, they will become better than they are now. The current bottom teams in the Big 12 will probably stay there. The new teams will have new and more fan interest than they had before. The pie gets bigger.

When your rival gets better it doesn’t mean interest in your team decreases.

Utah’s highest ever ranking was 2008. Was BYU fan interest low from 2006-2009? Same conference. More eyeballs on even the bad teams in the MWC that year.

The more good teams there are in your conference, the bigger the pie gets for the whole conference. It’s not zero sum.

But you said it yourself. When Utah entered the conference fan interest was boosted. That supports my point.
Then you suppose what *would have happened* if what actually happened hadn’t happened.

That’s not a counter example.