I wish I could rep your post 100 times, because it's full of facts and truth.
Texas could have left the Big 12 at ****ANY POINT**** in the past 15 years. When this topic used to come up 15+ years ago, I was receptive to the idea of going Big 10 or Pac X. Those conferences felt like better cultural fits with Austin, and I wasn't crazy about competing with the bagmen of the yeehaw Deep South. Obviously, a lot has changed in the last 15 years, including NIL. I'm glad the alums like me who were looking Midwest or West Coast lost that argument.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the Texas/OU departures were announced within weeks of the new NIL rules. I don't think that's a coincidence.
I mean, in the late-stage capitalism of the modern NCAA, why would Texas keep themselves yoked to schools who cannot pull their own weight in terms of revenue, why would Texas fill their home schedule with a bunch of schools that NO ONE (including our own season-ticket holders) gives a shit about, miss out on all the five-star recruits who want to play on the biggest stages, and subject themselves to endless fuckery from the openly "Anyone-But-Texas" administrators (like Yormark) who run the conference?
There were ZERO reasons for us to slog on in this league.