If one goes away with teams being poached, then this 3rd conference will eventually be edged out by the SEC and Big 10. Sure, they can still do so if the ACC and Big 12 are viable but think it will be harder. So why the angst with the Big 12 and ACC? The Big 12 isn't in the trusting mood. It is similar to the Pac. The Pac and ACC excluded the Big 12 from the Alliance. After USC/UCLA, the Pac directed all their ire at the Big 12 and looked down on the Big 12. ACC saw vulnerability too. Pac fans talked of a merger with the ACC and ACC fans talked merger with the Pac. Both never talked of aligning with the Big 12. Thus, Big 12 waited for the Pac to crumble and took advantage. Big 12 sees the ACC looks down on them and ACC has shown no intention of working together with the Big 12. The ACC has a worse bottom but they have the brands and thus are a stronger conference. The Big 12 had the brands too but were the first to get poached. But that helped in a weird way as they recovered with the best available teams. There is near zero good available teams now for the ACC to add. Thus, the Big 12 sits back and waits for the ACC to fracture to be the 3rd strongest conference even though it likely will end up with them being edged out down the road.