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The Big XII has to be understood in light of its own history. There were always internecine squabbles about how the money would be divided up because the Texas schools knew that the small markets of the Great Plains schools weren’t bringing in dollars anywhere close to what the Texas schools were generating. No other conference had those same battles for distribution of profits because no one else had the same lopsided imbalance of revenue production.
Now the 2 big Texas schools (UT and A&M) are gone. The 2 big name brand schools, Nebraska and Oklahoma, which drew national audiences, oversized as compared with the size of their local markets, are gone. The only other 2 programs which had big markets in their home states, Missouri and Colorado,p even though their teams weren’t big winners, are also gone. That’s half of the original Big XII that was assembled in the ‘90s.
The Big XII has been hollowed out. The remaining members don’t have value all by themselves, i.e. when they’re not part of big regional rivalries. Texas knew that, which is why they were always fighting for a bigger piece of the pie.
The remaining PAC-12 still has big markets - Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, and Phoenix. They command those markets almost entirely with big state schools which have a natural following among the general population. The remnants of the Bug XII are now trying to compete fir the Texas market with private schools like Baylor and TCU.
So, I see the PAC-12 as being in a stronger position with 10 core members left vs only 6 in the Big XII + a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies with no proven track records of their own. Traditional rivalries are limited. The PAC-XII could add 2, 4, or 6 from the Big XII and still have a coherent conference. Or they could go the mega-conference route that the B1G seems to be embarking toward and have 24 (assuming that ND leaves) with coherent divisions on the 2 coasts.
I wouldn’t want to be the B1G, scrambling to find leftovers. They started that a decade ago when they picked up WVU and TCU. They’ve continued with UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, and BYU. Except for BYU, none of these are upgrades. The conference has been weakened, leaving no reason for any PAC-12 schools to defect and join them.
Caveat: All of this could be moot if the B1G continues its raid and grabs Stanford, Washington, Oregon, and possibly Cal.
Football is a mixed bag. You have some awesome athletes, and some big guys who can push back. I don't even think a kid has to be able to run a mile in order to make the high school team.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.