Of course, for Rice, somehow maneuvering to re-aligning with the remains of the Big XII would be a big step up in both prestige and revenue, not to mention, more appropriate peer schools, renewing several historical rivalries, and with the exception of WVU, more regional travel and fan interest. For those schools, adding a school in the Houston market to come and play games would actually make a lot of sense, unlike many other major conference situations:

Baylor
Texas Tech
TCU
OKST
Kansas
Kansas St
Iowa St
WVU
Rice* (possibly, maybe, hopefully, please)
Whoever else they can get who is leftover when music stops

IMO, should any level of interest be extended towards Rice, the school should say yes no matter what and take its chances. even bottom-dwelling among those schools would improve and stabilize our situation far better than where we find ourselves today. Maybe that EZF investment would make a whole lot better return. Still would need to be willing to invest some real non-donor university dollars to do major renovations to HRS, which was kid of the problem the last time we had a chance to actually improve our position by moving conferences. Will we learn from past mistakes, or just let the winds blow us wherever we settle and not make the effort?