You remember high school? It’s full of cliques and at least as far as when I was in it (centuries ago ha-ha laugh it up) the jock boys and cheerleaders were still two of the ones it was cool to be in with.
So if you were at lunch with your buddies who you play Magic the Gathering with or your girls who have become proficient on the clarinet and the jocks or cheerleaders ask you to come sit and eat with them, you take them up on it…right?
For Oregon (and Washington for that matter) I suppose it was that kind of scenario, and the Big Ten, er…Big Eighteen now, provided just enough peer pressure that they gathered up their pizza and gatorade and plopped down next to the popular kids.