That would be awful for fans. The ACC expanded a few years ago and we no longer play UNC twice in basketball and instead get to play Boston College. They are not a natural rival and i’ve never actually met a Boston College fan. One of the great things about school is the banter between people at work and the ability to make people at church squirm after your team wins. Play against a team with no overlapping fan base and wins aren’t as great and losses as bad. Bragging rights aren’t worth much if you don’t have anyone to brag to and I can’t imagine that fans in Syracuse, New York will have much of a real rivalry with fans from Texas. Certainly they won’t travel in the numbers they would against a regional rival.
It isn’t good for the “student” athletes either to have to travel so much and miss even more class than they already do. Then again everyone knows that college sports haven’t been about education and the student in student athlete for a long time.
Actually, if you read the article, I explain how the conference could “shrink by expanding.” With 17 teams, teams in the conference can only play rivals once, and must play teams which are completely alien to them. Going to divisional play would six of the seven original Big East members to play each other twice, the old CUSA teams to play each other twice, the football rivals to play each other twice, and avoid mismatches like Louisville v. Providence, or Marquette v. Connecticut altogether.