Back during the post Big East expanion aftermath of the early 2000's, the CUSA and WAC were fighting for the same teams. CUSA wanted SMU, Rice, and Tulsa, while the WAC wanted Tulane and Houston. CUSA won this battle which led to the WAC admitting Idaho, New Mexico St, and Utah St, and leaving La Tech as an isolated eastern outpost. What would have happened if the WAC would have won this battle and Tulane and Houston went westward?

WAC West
Hawaii
Fresno St.
San Jose St.
Nevada
Boise St.
UTEP

WAC East
Houston
Rice
SMU
Tulsa
Tulane
LA Tech

TCU would have still gone to the MWC. Leaving CUSA hanging on at 6 members: Memphis, UAB, Southern Miss, ECU, St. Louis, and Charlotte. Now this is where it gets interesting. St. Louis and Charlotte left CUSA because of the all sports nature the conference was taking. If Houston and Tulane had left, a different direction would have had to be take to save CUSA.
How I see it is the remaining 6 members would not have gone the all sports route and CUSA would be completely different.

To replace the departing DePaul and Marqutte, CUSA could have picked up Xavier and Dayton. This would help pacify St. Louis' geographic concerns, which is vital because if they leave and join the A10, CUSA drops below the magic number of 6 to stay aflot. Marshall and UCF could still join from the MAC to help give the conference enough football members. That would give CUSA 6 members for football and 10 overall.

Since that would be a scheduling nightmare, CUSA would have to pick up two Sunbelt teams. North Texas and UL Lafyette would fit nicely in place of Houston, TCU, and Tulane and cover the same areas. While definately a tougher sell, long term CUSA could stay afloat in those markets by having teams in there.

Finally, since 8 is not enough, CUSA could have added Temple for football only to give them a nice number of football teams and an overall stable, quality conference. 8 all sports school, 1 football affiliate, and 12 overall.

St. Louis*
Xavier*
Dayton*
Marshall
ECU
Charlotte*

Memphis
UAB
Southern Miss
UCF
Louisiana Lafyette
North Texas

Temple: football affiliate

While its a hybrid I think that is a pretty good CUSA.

For fun here is how the Sunbelt would look:

Idaho
Utah St.
New Mexico St.
Denver*
UALR*
Arkansas St.
Louisiana Monroe

UNO*
Troy St
USA*
WKU*
MTSU
FAU
FIU

Not perfect but not bad; a little spread out. WKU and USA would still have a conference to start fbs football in though.

So, did things turn out better the way they are now or is this better?

oh yeah, the a10 would then have 10 members

St. Bony
Fordham
URI
UMASS
Temple
St. Joe's
LaSalle
Duquense
GW
Richmond

And when Charlotte brings football online do you go 10 or boot Temple?

With 12 games you could play 9 conference games. . . ala the Pac 10. But then you have an unbalanced schedule again (4/5, home/away).

The real question is would FIU, FAU, Louisiana-Monroe, and Troy all have landed full memberships in the Sun Belt if Idaho, Utah State, and New Mexico State were still around? The Florida schools do bring significant market potential to the table, but significantly extend the footprint, even for the eastern schools. Troy and Louisiana-Monroe at least are in the existing footprint.

This probably would be the Sun Belt had the above happened with Conference USA and the WAC:

West - Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico St, Denver*, UALR*, Arkansas State
East - Louisiana-Monroe, New Orleans*, South Alabama*, Troy, WKU*, MTSU
Football only - FAU (Atlantic Sun), FIU (Atlantic Sun)

At some point I'd think the Mountain West would expand to 12 schools, and we'd wind up with something very similar to the current real-life alignments; the only difference would be who has 9 and who has 12.

It is a very interesting scenario, but one with a few problems. CUSA had the better TV contracts and offered the privates more opportunities to be on TV as their games starter 1-2 hours earlier. Rice, SMU, and Tulsa were bleeding in the WAC. Tulsa and Houston were bleeding in CUSA. I think there was really only one way this move could go.

A split conference would have been a big help, but frankly If I were Hawaii or SD state, I'd be worried about a breakaway SWC leaving them in even worse shape.

UTEP
Houston
Rice
SMU
Tulsa
Tulane
LA Tech
+ UNT or TCU

I suspect that, and their general disdain for large conference scheduling, is why they didn't make this happen.