The reason I personally want to move to a different conference is it just raises the floor of the athletic department.
The number of G5 schools that have had sustained success in FBS football OR basketball is small.
The number of G5 schools that have had sustained success in FBS football AND basketball is smaller.
The number of G5 schools that have had sustained success in FBS football AND basketball on MAC exposure/budget/fan support is 0.
It's a nice theoretical to say let's just hang around the MAC and dominate until the end of time but UB isn't the first MAC school to have a string of successful seasons, and all of those other "dynasties" have since ended. There are several things that lead to success, but recruiting is king. Recruits are interested in fan support, facilities (budget), exposure, and success. Obviously these things are all tied together, and moving to a better conference automatically raises the first three, and should in turn raise the fourth. It takes one bad hire to torpedo UB's image of success in the mind of a 17 year old recruit and then we're left with really nothing exceptional in the fan support, facilities (budget), and exposure categories.
The issue for us is there's not really a strong group of regional G5 teams, with Temple and UMass pretty much being the only options without pushing further south. I would have hoped we would have gotten in the AAC as there's really not much potential for UB to move up without P5 conferences completely blowing up, and us ending up in a completely new conference with the leftovers: Syracuse, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, BC, etc.