If Sac joined Conference USA they would be geographically isolated wouldn't they--the only CUSA team on The West Coast ? ( While I can appreciate The Big Ten and its individual schools have the deep pockets to have schools separated by 3 time zones and pay the expenses of flying to the Central and Eastern Time Zones, I don't think CUSA is nearly so flush.)
So I wonder if CUSA would even want the Hornets--maybe because Sacramento is a big city with over 500,000 residents and about 2.5 million Californians within the Sacremento area While I am far from an expert on either CUSA or Sac. State, my impression is the Sacramento Kings of The NBA are far more important in Sacremento than the Hornets.