Off-season OT: What does a conference do for you?

[ragtimejoe1]

OK, a little twist on the rampant realignment threads: what is it that you think a conference does for UW? What benefits does the MWC bring UW and how are those benefits increased by whatever realignment scenario you advocate (though please don't list, debate, and rehash the same old tired topic of which teams)? Also, avoid the ___ market is so big which means more money. No it doesn't or they would be making more money where they are.

Here is what I have:
1) Stable (relatively) environment with some rivalries and guaranteed scheduling.
2) Conference championship with auto access to NCAAs and an autobid for football (most/some years).
3) Some TV exposure and some revenue albeit relatively limited for both.

Other than that? Honestly for me that is about it. I don't really even particularly care about playing most of the teams in the MWC anymore. I don't get the realignment fascination and see very few (if any) scenarios that improve UW's situation. The one exception being improving Bball to improve RPI to improve the number of at large bids, but I would counter that we will likely maximize at 3 or 4 bids regardless of our configuration. Sans the current downtrend, I think most years we fill our maximum with the current teams we have.