Always seemed 'shocking' to me for Maryland and UVA to separate. I guess conference mates since 1957, but border state and a rivalry back to 1919 for football.

The eventual reset seems to be private schools cannot compete in this arms race across all sports. $s seem to drive most privates to invest beyond football. For now, basketball is revenue positive or neutral for most primarily basketball schools.

Examples:

Would you rather be:
1) Utah or BYU
2) Appy or Wake
3) ODU or Liberty

Will these private schools continue to keep up the investment in their programs, facilities, and do this across the board for women's & men's programs? I doubt this, especially as performance based stipulations arise for them. A climber like Liberty, might increase their prominence - but won't crack the P4 in terms of football.

G5/6 conferences largely are relegated to participation trophies. But at least as we have seen in basketball a 16 can beat a 1 seed. The problem for football in particular, you lose a key element in game or just before - it can be very difficult to recover. Odd's are, this hurts the team with less depth, but of course that varies.