You weren't going to the Pac 10 dumbass.
1st - The board of regents wouldn't have let KU leave unless the conference fell apart. Which it didn't. So the option was never really there to begin with.
2nd - The Pac 10 didn't want you. You were plan C. Behind TAMU and even Utah. Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise.
KU leadership was just as desperate to appease the big three schools as KSU, ISU, MU, and Baylor. That's why they got on their knees and begged. They offered to give the big three the penalty without even being prompted. That doesn't say "Praise us for keeping this thing together." KU had no say in that, as much as you try to convince yourself otherwise. That says "I'm bending over big guys, here's the lube, please be gentle."
You shouldn't be trying to defend your school pride by commemorating the fact that you might have been the backup plan to the backup plan. Instead, you should be breathing a sigh of relief and saying "Thank God my school, which is apparently undesirable by other conferences, wasn't doomed to obscurity in the Mountain West" like the rest of the "Have-not Five."