Looking at the basketball side here.

Top level (NCAA bid) schools - UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, Memphis, Temple, St. John's, MU, Cincy.
Next level - Providence, Seton Hall, USF
Struggle - DePaul


That is not a bad conference. It's not the old Big East, but it is not a mid major hoop conference. The old Big East was an absolute beast top to bottom. This Big East still has numerous NCAA level teams and is a multiple bid conference. The change is the bottom teams or the weak RPI teams just increased. I think what some of the new schools do bring may be sports such as baseball to ensure the nornmal non revenue sports still have a conference.

The schools we are talking (Tulane, SMU - Houston - UCF) are currently looking to be at the bottom of the conference with hopes they can move up and become at least occasional NCAA type teams that don't kill RPI by being in the conference. I don't think it is too much to ask, and schools like Houston should have some potential and do have some history, although not recent.

It is the best we can do for now, but there are likely to be more changes and we just have to sit back and react.