Hi, I'm a Memphis fan who has lurked here from time to time whenever B12/AAC expansion talk heats up primarily because ODU has been occasionally mentioned as an AAC addition.
Some factual errors in your scenario:
The AAC only has divisions for football, none for basketball. Wichita wasn't added to any division or "pod" and its addition has nothing to do with the anticipation of any B12 expansion for a number of reasons, primarily that any expansion would mean the loss of a football school which would be replaced by another football school if there was one loss, or not replaced at all if there were two losses (according to commissioner Aresco). Wichita had zero to do with any balance subsequent to a loss. The school was added as a cash cow for tourney credits and to increase the league's bball image.
AAC West:
SMU
Tulsa
Navy
Houston
Memphis
Tulane
AAC East
UConn
Cincy
Temple
ECU
UCF
USF
As far as WKU, USM, or Rice being mentioned as replacements for any losses, I have never heard of any of those being considered, at least on the AAC member boards, and the Cincy and Memphis threads on B12 realignment literally number in the hundreds of pages. Maybe USM as a sentimental favorite of a few, but certainly not WKU or Rice. I have heard ODU mentioned far more than either of those three. If UAB is able to show sustained institutional and fan support for football, maybe them too. But then again, this is just message board chatter so who knows.
At this point though no one in the AAC anticipates B12 expansion until after their GOR and ESPN contract expires in 2025. At the time of the B12's beauty pageant contest last summer where every AAC school made a sort of swimsuit presentation, the conference's deal with ESPN said that if any new schools were added, the new school would receive a full $20 million share paid by ESPN and not coming out of the existing schools' shares. Needless to say ESPN was not happy about the possibility of shelling out an extra $40 million per year if they expanded by 2. So, what did the B12 and ESPN do? ESPN bought out that provision for a lump sum paid to the schools. In other words, in the future any media money for a newbie would come out of the hides of the current members which likely means no expansion. B12 expansion talk appears to have been a nice ploy to extort money from ESPN, and it worked. ESPN already gets the TV rights to Cincy, Memphis, Houston, UCF, USF, Tulane and anyone else in the AAC for peanuts. So why would it want to pay any of those schools $20 million each in a new conference when it gets the whole AAC for $22 million?
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journ...ig-12.aspx
Excuse my long-windedness and digression. I would think ODU would be a fine addition if and when the time arises, as well as UAB if it can right that ship. If Cincy or UConn left, ODU would fit in the East, and if Houston left UAB could be in the West. Again, though, Wichita as a bball school is a non factor in expansion.