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[QUOTE="Moontan, post: 62025, member: 166"]
There was nothing to be done about the first raid.

There were two follow on issues that led the end:
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[*]Further expansion just took too long. While getting to 9 was a good step (evening and strengthening the schedule), the failure to follow that up with a move to 12 was a failure in BE leadership. Giving 'Nova a chance to prop up its program was admirable, but two other programs (and a spare) should've been lined up concurrently. UCF and either of Houston or SMU were the right choices. Allowing USF and the rest of their C-USA pack to thwart a UCF invite was the killer.
[*]Rejecting the ESPN contract extension offer while the expansion fiasco was going on was the final straw. Had a 12-team conference been in place it would be expected that ESPN would've increased its offer even more.
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Had these two items been addressed, we would've seen a 12-team BE (8 + TCU, UCF, Houston and [S]Nova/[/S]SMU) with a healthier TV contract.

The ACC might still have invited Syracuse and Pitt. Would they have taken the offer... maybe. Even if they would've, the BE would not have been in an immediate panic mode. I suspect Boise, Air Force, BYU and Navy would find it easier to join under those circumstances than they would today.

That said, the fact that Boise & Co. are apparently willing to join the party under the current circumstances makes it appear as if the BE were able to present them with some sort of assurances that the AQ status will be prolonged. Either through direct support from other conferences or by showing a very strong statistical case why that status should be safe.
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