It is a lot easier for someone to invest in the basketball program where there is success. It will be very difficult for people to take a blind leap of faith to throw a lot of money at a football program that just doesn’t seem headed in the right direction.
That's a coaching discussion, not a conference value discussion.
We had Brian Kelly for well over a decade at Notre Dame and he bolted for LSU for more money and better options in recruiting. The new ND coach is not guaranteed to keep ND in the Top 10 range and if ND falls back to a 8-4 program, will fans blindly watch them playing Wake Forest??
OR
Will they be better off hosting Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, USC, UCLA, Penn State and Nebraska etc for recruiting purposes??
At some point, ND drives ratings, but I'd rather wager that they fall further behind the top schools in the B1G (USC, OSU, Michigan) and SEC (UGA, Bama, LSU).....
In terms of RU, the Schiano factor and putting a quality, respectable product is step 1. If and when that happens, things change and image opens up like hoops has been able to do.
The upside is still very much an unknown for RU, we have yet to see a classic or normal scenario where both basketball and football are successful or "winning " at the same time in the B1G or in the last 25+ years.
We went 17 years without a winning record in basketball, prior to the 2019-20 season, forget making a NIT.
If RU football can get to 7-5 & competition is closer than what we have seen in football, while Pike is winning games at the RAC, things change around here, and fast!!