1. The Big 12 has West Virginia, so adding Cincy, Memphis, Houston, even UCF fits better geographically

2. UCF and Cincy have been the top two G5 teams over the past decade and have won well over half their games against P5 competition - BYU has won almost 40%

3. UCF, Cincy, Memphis outdraw BYU in TV viewers despite having fewer national games and fewer high profile opponents

4. (Although this is really an explanation for #3) Eastern time zone has more fans, bigger populations, more upside

5. As much as Utah has grown as a source of high end recruits, it still pales compared to Texas, Ohio, Florida

6. If they pass on BYU, they keep the option open. Geographically only the PAC12 and Big12 could take BYU and the PAC12 won't. So they can wait and add BYU if they want whenever they want. If they pass on Cincy and/or UCF, another conference could gobble them up.

7. Cultural issues with BYU aren't as big for the Big12 as they are for the PAC12, but they're still something that UCF, Cincy, etc don't have to deal with