If you're Kliakoff or a leach like Utah, you want the gravy train to keep on rolling, even at a reduced speed (USC/UCLA leaving). It's Kliakoff's job and it's the yewts' pride-and-joy inextricably linked to yewt ego and their admins' pocketbook - still subsidized by Oregon and Washington. Going Indy or to the MWC would be a huge blow to ego and finances.

It's pretty evident the PAC12 is in trouble, so of course you go on a media blitz to insist everything is fine, nothing to see here - the dog meme in the burning house. Throw crumbs to the masses and promise more is coming, while also creating additional friction for OR and WA to leave.

I'm not sure Oregon and Washington see that same level of desperation. They're in the position yewts' delude themselves of being in - deserve a bigger payday than the PACis going to provide, and hate paying out of their own pockets to subsidize the likes of bottom feeders like Utah - but might or might not get an invite from the BIG. Probably holding out for the BIG and not exploring the Big12 but even that is better than staying in the PAC-WAC mix they're about to become.

For now, the best they can hope for is something they can brand and spin as satisfactory to OR and WA and their fans/boosters so the conference stays together, but it probably be short of what the Big12 is offering. I can't see any scenario any serious person would say the PAC is setting up to be a significant draw for Big12 teams. Not revenue, not exposure and certainly not level of competition. And the research/academics thing is nothing but a red herring.

So maybe if they survive, they could entertain trying to lure over a Big12 team with some magical revenue in the future, but the likelihood is they're just trying to keep their jobs for now, I'd say.