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One early supporter was R. Gerald Turner, the president of Southern Methodist University.

"Brit, I don't blame you," Mr. Turner emailed after Maryland's Big Ten move was announced. "There are too many positives for the University for you to have stood in the doorway.

"What I don't like," he added, "is the ACC taking another Big East team!!"

(Less than two weeks after Maryland said it was departing for the Big Ten, the University of Louisville said it was moving to the ACC.)

Mr. Turner and Mr. Kirwan discussed other concerns as well. As co-chairs of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a watchdog group that has advocated for controls on spending in college sports, they found themselves defending moves to higher-power conferences.

"With my moving to the Big East and Maryland's move to the Big 10, we will need to think through all our messages," Mr. Turner wrote. He said he didn't feel compromised on the commission's issues, but that he, Mr. Kirwan, and Amy Perko, the commission's executive director, "probably need a frank conversation."

"Totally agree," Mr. Kirwan responded. "I was thinking exactly the same thing."