The common narrative, at least from the SEC, is that they only voted to go to 12 in 1990 because the Big 10 added Penn St the December prior and they feared an expansion arms race. Was that really the case though?

The PSAC approached the NCAA with the CCG concept in 1986 and were going to implement it in 1988. The DI-A conferences all had to vote to approve it. Were they already contemplating the possible advantages the CCG afforded then?

Was there any hesitation to expand then, for fear of the optics of being an aggressor and the Penn St move gave them something they could pin it on?

The SWC was in the thick of the Pony Express controversy—going after their teams then would have come across as kicking them while they were down.