Remember that they had a failed vote on D1 in 2012. The 2016 referendum was probably tailored to counter the arguments against the 2012 vote. There was lots of language in 2016 specifying "non-football D1"; maybe in 2012 it wasn't clear, and it failed because of the fear of spiraling costs adding football. Maybe in 2012 there was talk like "well, yeah, if it's the Big West I'd vote for it but the WAC or WCC is beneath us and there's no guarantee the Big West is where we'll end up". Difficult to argue with the results. 2012 failed and 2016 succeeded. Being Big West non-football might have been the difference.