adding schools that are named after cities feels so small timey
Pitt isn't small timey. Miami isn't small timey.
Well, actually, Miami based on some metrics (attendance) is small timey, but people tend to disagree.
Cincy has an endowment over a billion dollars. Houston's is over $600 million. Cincy is on the short list if the AAU decides to expand again. Houston has the third largest enrollment in the state of Texas and is one of three Tier 1 Research universities. Academically, you can argue that they are more well respected than Tech.
If you put on the president's hat, and you start talking about what matters to them outside of athletics, they're going to talk about this kind of stuff. WVU is strongly advocating for Cincy for a number of reasons, and if you really want stability as this GOR ends in 9 years, WVU is an asset that you must protect. Depending on where the ACC is at that time, they may be looking to join that league if we don't offer them some sort of partner.
Both Cincy and Houston can, and have, fielded Top 25 teams outside of the power conferences. If you give them our resources and branding, they can field consistently competitive teams in football and basketball. Both schools have access to large pools of talent, and both of them can easily sell their T3 rights to Fox due to their proximity in relation to strong regional FSN networks that are anchored by MLB teams.
Also, the addition of Houston and Cincy give us two teams that can easily be accessed by a more geographically dispersed Eastern division where it could be easy for teams to travel there due to their strong travel infrastructure.