Adding a school like USU was never in the cards, but they had to pivot to it after their initial preferences didn't pan out. Same with Hawaii

But if they could have added SDSU, Boise St, Fresno St, Colorado St, Air Force, UNLV, Memphis, UTSA, USF and Tulane?

That would be quite a solid 10 team conference (albeit with USF a bit on an island) and a sizable improvement over a reverse MWC merge. With Air Force, UNLV, Memphis, UTSA, USF, Tulane not taking the bait, then they're left with options that are basically 80% of a reverse merge, where it's probably no longer worth the contention and buyouts