Pac-10 investigating title game. / What if VT stayed in the Big East?

As part of his conference's ongoing expansion study, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott has explored the possibility of staging a conference football championship game with the current membership of 10.

Scott told CBSSports.com that he has spoken to the commissioners of the Big Ten and Big East about the feasibility of a Pac-10 championship game with less than the NCAA-mandated 12 members. The Big Ten has 11 members. The Big East has eight.

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NCAA bylaw 17.9.5.2 (c) states that a conference must have at least 12 members to stage a championship game. NCAA legislation would be needed to change that bylaw. Supposedly, such a change would be non-controversial.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/13102294/pac10-looking-at...

Which is interesting enough, but leads us to this hypothetical question...

If Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College never bolted from the Big East to form the ACC "super conference", and the Big East hadn't expanded, but rather pursued and was granted a championship game would that conference be in better shape than the 9 team ACC (in a football sense only)?

I think so...

Virginia Tech is among the elite programs over the last six years. Boston College, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Miami are a lean meat. Rutgers and Connecticut have held their own and are continuing to grow. And Syracuse, a former respectable program, is the lone bottom-feeder.