I was just looking at this.
One note regarding Nevada is that there is no major college sports program in the Sacramento area and Reno puts its population in the middle of Pac-12 country if we added them. Also, I was reading an article this morning that with Tesla's move to Reno and all the other tech industry moving there (only 4% of its economy is now gambling), people are projecting a similar boom to what happened in Austin as it grew from a 250k metro - Reno's current size - to 900k. I'm not saying they're a "take" right now, but there is a ton of potential there and they're worth keeping an eye on.
I guess my point is that I think these numbers start looking quite different by 2030 for where the population is in the US. It's moving west and western universities are expanding at record pace. It seems to me that the Pac-12 shouldn't be looking east and going against that trend. Instead, standing pat for now while strengthening our foundations while looking to add PTZ-MTZ institutions as they rise up and become fits. I believe we're going to see some institutions in the coming decade with UCF type growth in the western US and we want to have room for those schools in our conference.
UNR is going like a rocket right now along with northern nevada. but, they do still have a way to go. reno maybe has more upside than austin.