ukfanfrombirth(cali cat)
The Summoner
You are thinking too traditionally...which I also do.
It ain't about quality athletic teams joining conferences anymore. It is about how much money adding a team will bring to a conference...be it TV sets, research money, etc! Nothing else matters. (Well nearly nothing else...some are invited just to make even numbers.)
I don't think Memphis...or any other current G5 team... moves the needle in that regard. But, I may be wrong. The only one might be BYU and they only do because their viewers are scattered in all the major markets.
You make a really interesting point.
I don't know much about various tv markets, but looking at a map, Memphis would cover a part of the country that isn't currently represented by the Big 12 (I say Big 12 because there's no way they will ever get in the SEC ... Tennessee and Ole Miss would never allow it, they don't have the academics for the Big 10, I can't see them in the ACC, and I can't see the Pac 12 expanding east of the Mississippi).