re: Can someone give me a summary of why the SWC died?

Try putting yourself in Broyle's shoes, about 1990.

You've got a profitable football program that has experienced gradual decline since roughly 1978. The conference you are in has degenerated in terms of the public perception of the legitimacy of it's competition (6 schools on probation of some sort at the same time), and the Cotton Bowl is quickly losing it's national profile as a Big 4 bowl-- you can argue it was passed in 1986 by the Fiesta Bowl quite cogently-- money wise, you can look at the athletic department accounts (Arkansas was and remains an entirely funded in-house athletic program, unlike most) and see that with the decline of SMU, TCU, and Houston that there are going to be long term challenges to the league in revenue generation, in no small part due to a terrible contract with RAYCOM.

You can see the beginnings of the television revolution, as CBS and the SEC are in well-publicized negotiations over a major national contract, ESPN coverage is just beginning to nationalize the sport on a 24-7 format, and ABC has pretty well dropped off the practice of picking up all but the two or three biggest SWC games of the year.

The SWC has essentially given up trying to be profitable on the basketball front, and one of your biggest assets is a quickly emerging basketball program that turns a tidy profit, but even that is endangered by the inability of the SWC to drive interest up among fans. Throw in a league office that is, to put it mildly, not friendly to your school despite it essentially carrying the SWC basketball tournament's profitability on it's back, and a long history of issues related to Texas' influence in the office, and it's not a tough call at all.

Money, competitive spirit, and the desire to move from a climate of malaise to one of opportunity and growth fired the Arkansas move to the SEC.

Happiness, as they say, is Texas in the rearview mirror.

Arkansas wanted to be part of a conference with more diversity, progressiveness, fairness, stability, and opportunity for future growth. The SEC had enough vision to see the advantages of making changes that would strengthen the SEC, increase overall profits, and create a win-win situation for every school committed to the change, with minimal risk. South Carolina also fit well into the overall equation. Everything was ripe for the realignment.

I explained that the best I could without blaming UTa. No single factor killed the SWC. If I had to give one reason, it would be lack of overall progressive vision, cohesiveness, and competent leadership. It was analogous to fielding a team with a lot of talent, with many players acting in their own self interest.