I think we all need to remind ourselves that P5, P6, "power conference", mid-major, etc. are all purely artificial labels - media shorthand. And by media I am including "amateur" media as well as professional - all of us who inhabit internet message boards and talk forums.

As such, nobody has the power to elevate or demote a conference to such a status. There are two distinctions that do matter, however. One is autonomy status - power granted to five conferences who have separated themselves based on resources, and which the NCAA can't afford to lose. They are the geese laying the golden eggs.

The second is AQ, or automatic qualifier, status which guarantees those five conferences access to the high dollar, high prestige bowl games dubbed the NY6. When all is said and done, it is those bowls which grant that status, not the NCAA and not the media. And those "grants" are the free market at work.

The perception of power in basketball is similar. Conferences don't get multiple tournament bids because they are considered power conferences. Just the opposite.
They are considered by the media to be power conferences because they consistently get multiple bids. Similarly, conferences don't get paid more by the media because someone dubbed them "power worthy". They get paid more because the market says their content is more valuable to the advertisers and consumers who pay the bills.

So what should we be calling the P5/6? A name they used to refer to themselves says it as eloquently and accurately as any I've heard. They are the "high resources group". And by that measure, I'm not sure that the Big East even qualifies. As far as I know, they have no special voting status within the NCAA. They don't have "autonomy", however that term is defined. Like the AAC, their current perceived market value as measured by the size of their media contracts was based on a prospective, rather than retrospective estimate of how strong they are likely to be on the court. Like the AAC, time will sort that out when those contracts are renewed.

At the end of the day, the networks will decide who is most valuable to them, and not to anyone else. The rest is just talk.