The idea of breaking off from the status quo actually gained more traction than most people think. At the time Commissioner Delany was spearheading the talks and had as many as 5 different conferences doing legwork about the feasibility of separating from the NCAA for baseball. The plan was to start their season in late March and play their own schedule, ending with their own championship.
I was told in the end two hurdles were eventually too high.
1) Scheduling/Cost
2) The optics of being viewed as a second rate product. Loose comparisons were made to FBS vs. FCS in football. While FCS is still a very good level of competition, it does not draw nearly the attention, fans, support (including $$) that their larger brethren do.
In the end, it sounds as if plans were left on the table.
One good result--The athletic departments at many of those universities decided that instead of breaking off, they would sink more funding and support into their baseball programs (turf fields, fully funding their scholarship allotments, paying higher end coaches, etc.) The Big Ten is a prime example of that. It's no surprise to many who are involved in the college game, that the conference's rise to national respectability came after the majority of the universities decided to make the sport more of a priority.
