The main reason why the conferences have gotten all messy is TV. When you are a West coast team only conference and negotiate TV contracts, it's all about ratings and what the station charges for commercial time. West coast only conferences just don't have the same viewership because their 7pm games are on a 9PM on the east coast. Some games are even later. The total population able to view those games is smaller thus the TV contract is smaller. UCLA and USC going to the B1G get the larger TV contracts East coast and Mid-West schools get.

This version of the BE was formed more to save the basketball only schools. There just aren't that many out there with the profiles that the current BE have.