If this mega conference happens with that few team spots, they’ll take the opportunity to shuffle out and replace the existing lower value teams with more additive options that would otherwise be left out. I think the Illini would struggle to be more attractive than programs like Colorado, Utah, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Texas Tech, WVU, and Baylor. There are more B12/ACC programs that have better ratings than us, and also add Kansas and Duke to that list of schools if this theoretical structure also includes basketball.
I think we’re more likely to come along in a theoretical merger if the target school count is larger, but I think realistically it makes more sense for the 32 most elite programs from across the full cfb landscape to just split off and leave schools like us behind.