Adding non-football schools to the Big12 makes a ton of sense if Yormark strongly believes he can make more money by negotiating separate TV deals for football and basketball.
If the long-game is three 20-24 team conferences, then the traditional idea of conferences is probably over. At that point do we have protected rivals and rotate through other conference members? Or do we have conferences within conferences?
I said some time ago he might be planning a mega basketball only "league"; it was the only way Gonzaga made sense. By themselves, why bother? But if the BigEast was also in it, now you have something substantial.
BY has said that getting more money out of bball is key.
Big East adds significant east coast media and time zone exposure; but 5 of their teams are in the midwest so it's a little easier to manage logistics.
The Rucker Park tie-in thing.
All this may be moving pieces of this basketball growth strategy.