I guess I disagree. Butler went to two title games. Gonzaga has been as good as just about any major conference team for quite some time. Xavier has had excellent teams and in the last five years had an elite 8 and three sweet 16 teams. Butler, Dayton and Xavier, plus the 7, plus UConn and Cinci, would be probably the second best basketball league to the ACC. If you add Creighton and SLU as well, it gets even better. I think Butler, Xavier, GTown and Marquette are all better than any team in the proposed NNNBE (excluding UConn and Cinci, since they would be in whatever league they join). So the level of basketball would not even be comparable.
That said, there is no way we can go independent for football, and Blauds never suggested it. The concept that was floated was Cinci and UConn football to the MWC, and the rest to the C7. That does yield a great result for UConn and Cinci, but I doubt that the MWC would go for it.