If ECU, UCF and Tulane all didn't have such historically weak basketball programs, there would have been a significantly greater chance of the C7 not leaving and starting a reconfigured Big East in 2013. Between those three additions, there was just a combined nine NCAA Tournament appearances in all of their respective program's history (ECU - 2, Tulane -3, UCF - 4). The C7 already had put up with USF, which just had one NCAA appearance while in the Big East (3 total NCAA appearances), and wasn't going to further drain the level of competition from the basketball side of things.

The C7 were genuinely excited about the prospects about playing Houston, Memphis and SMU. Houston and Memphis had terrific basketball history, tradition and NCAA Tournament success, and SMU, being a private university, was looking to pump more money into the basketball program (hiring Larry Brown and Tim Jankovic). Tulsa was added after the C7 defected, so there was never an thought with them (but, I would imagine they would have been excited to play them as well - 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, private school and a nice arena).

At the end of the day, both (new) conferences are extremely better off. Both get to focus on their institutional and athletic priorities, and a grouped with similar schools. It's amazing the Old Big East conference lasted as long as it did with the football/basketball dichotomy.