reason for the unbalanced conferences is because of unbalanced post season. If you balance out the post season you balance out some of the conferences.
Well before NIL anyway. With NIL now it’s just who has wealthy donors.
But before, kids wanted to play for championships. If the winner of the mountain west goes to the playoffs every year than Boise becomes a powerhouse. Same with Marshall or whatever.
Boise state would have been Gonzaga had post season access been equal for everyone.