Because of the Pac 10's pairing system, our proximity to KU would presumably be beneficial to our chances of making the conference.
How well would a 20 team conference fair? Can you imagine the BB tourney? The West at the staple center, East at the Ford. Get together for the last 2 rounds at the Pepsi Center. Amazing.
Holy smokes. Could you imagine the Big 20?
Football: two 10-team divisions, during conference season you only play every other team from your division. Preserves the football schedule for the Pac 10 schools and lets every former Big 12 team play each other every year. Then, you rotate the championship game between the freaking Rose Bowl (stadium) and Jerry World.

Sorry, crappy Georgia Dome and SEC. Sorry, crappy Jacksonville and ACC. Sorry, crappy Big 16 football playing in some (albeit newer) dome in Indy or Detroit.
Brent: "Folks, you are looking live at the beautiful, historic Rose Bowl in sunny Pasadena, California, on a crisp December evening. It's 55 degrees here, and we're set to watch the Trojans of Southern California take on the Longhorns of Texas for the Big 20 championship! The winner gets a ticket to the national championship game, and the loser most likely gets a nice consolation prize: a return trip to this stadium in just under a month!"
Basketball: Split into 5 4-team pods. KSU-KU-ISU-CU. OSU-OU-UT-aTm. BU-TT-AZ-ASU. USC-UCLA-Stanford-Cal. Oregon-Oregon State-WU-WSU. You play the teams in your pod home-and-away. You play the other pod composed of all your former conference members every year, each team either home or away. Then you play 2 of the 3 remaining pods every year, each team either home or away. (The mixed pod would just rotate to play 3 of the 4 other pods). Total of 18 conference games a year. For travel to the far away pods, you utilize the same pairing system the Pac 10 currently uses. Thus, you'll have only two long trips each season.