What Pac-12 leftovers can learn from the defunct Southwest Conference’s own forgotten four

The fate of multiple schools, and an entire conference, hinged on a television contract. “If I had my magic wand, I guess I would make a healthy and strong Southwest Conference, but I don’t think that’s achievable,” Texas president Robert Berdahl told the Houston Chronicle weeks before the league broke up. Those two schools are the only Pac-12 members who have made a College Football Playoff appearance since the format’s inception in 2014, and their combined three appearances in the event lag behind the totals of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12. Big 12 schools enjoyed conference revenue distributions that far outpaced that of the SWC’s castaways. According to the Knight Foundation’s college athletics database, which tracks schools’ financial data back to 2005, Texas Tech — a former SWC school that joined the Big 12 in its inception — has received $316 million more from its conference in the last 18 years combined than Houston has from its leagues.