But not terribly surprising considering we are still referencing things from more than 30 years ago.

The SEC and Big 10 are the strongest conferences, yes, but they are doing this because they know they are weak in the long-term. They are petrified that the power teams (e.g., OSU, Michigan, Texas, GA, AL, etc.) will leave the conference and get paid directly like ND or set up a "premier league" outside the current conferences when the current conference media deals are up. Therefore, they need to make their conference position as strong as possible to either convince those teams to stay or make it economically punitive to leave.