How does it help ISU to have UH in the conference? That is the only question that matters. It hurts us in recruiting players from Texas, now if we are neck and neck with a player that is also looking at UH, we can tell the kid, we are a P5 school, and you will get to play Texas and OU, we lose that if we allow them in the conference.
Houston's own president said a couple of years ago that the school cannot continue its current rate of support of the athletic programs when they are running deficits at a rate of 25 to 30 million a year.
Talk to other Big 12 Texas teams fan bases and they loath UH, and do not want them in the conference.
Houston is a pro sports town and the Cougars are a distant third behind the Astros and the Texans. Sure they can draw 50,000 for OU and UT, but how many people are they drawing for KU, ISU and KSU? How many ISU fans are just dreaming about road tripping to Houston for the weekend? Few is any, just like few of us go to TT. Baylor you can do Dallas and run down for the game, Austin is great, TCU is in Fort Worth, no one wants to go to Houston. Now Florida, that is different, we need to expand the footprint if we expand at all, and adding another team from Texas does not do that.