It's irrelevant whether schools in a conference bring the per school payment or not -- just relevant for potential new additions.
ASU is a huge school, in a large and growing metropolis, who over time has had plenty of periods where they are above average on a P5 level in both hoops and pigskin. Am I hard pressed to make a case that, if we can be worth $30M to the XII, so could they? No, I am not hard pressed.
People tend to make unsubstantiated comments. Ie UCF brings $30m to the Big XII.
To your point regarding ASU. I’m a metric driven individual.
The media revenue numbers we are seeing could not be driven by alumni only. The eyes of the general population surrounding the institution need to be engaged as well. Level of engagement is fluid and influenced by many factors. Other entertainment options (BC was good when the Pats were bad and vice versa - some of that could apply to us as well), and winning or competing percentage (In the 90’s think how many people were jumping on our hoops bandwagon). And ease of access to product (think population density - how easy is it for me to see my team). Plus a flagship may carry more weight in winning over a states general population than a private - exceptions could be Notre Dame, Navy, Army, BYU. Some of these institutional management can control (coaching hires, marketing, etc). Others are out of their control. And academic performance which is not in question with the exception of AAU.
Look at the B1G most recent adds starting with Penn St (excepting Nebraska, can’t figure out that one).
Metric 1. Population per P5 institution.
Rutgers (NJ) - 9.3m per school
Maryland - 6.2m
California - 9.8m
Pennsylvania - 6.5m
Washington - 3.9m (x 2 w/o WSU)
Oregon - 2.1m (x 2 w/o OSU)
• Ohio - 5.9m (x 2 pre UC to XII)
• Michigan - 5.0m
• Illinois - 6.4m
• Texas - 4.9m
Metric 2. Density
New Jersey - 1,263 pp/sqmi
California - 251 (much more if isolate SC)
Maryland - 632
Penn - 290
• Ohio 286, Illinois 230, Mich 173
So NYC. It has no P5 schools. So look at NYC-Nassau/Suffolk-Westchester-Rockland plus CT plus NJ plus MA. Population 33m second only to CA. Area 22k sq miles ( Texas 261k, CA 156k, OH 41k). 3 P5 (if we’re in)
Metric 1 - 11m pp/school
Metric 2 - 1,488 pp/sqmi
Both number one in each category.
Before dismissing think all the other criteria that’s been floated around these last 10 years. Must border existing state, history, culture, unsubstantiated $.