Virtually everything goes in cycles.
Fashion: Women wear hats. Hats become passe. Hats again become popular.
Organized religions are formed, grow and fade - and then others are formed.
Companies acquire other companies to diversify - and then later decide they should return to their core businesses. And still later conclude that circumstances now merit again diversifying.
I'm not at all sure when, but I'm pretty sure that the formation of these mega conferences will prove to be cyclical. Driving factors in shrinking such conferences could result from strained finances, travel complexities including classes missed by athletes, chronic competitive imbalances, alumni dissatisfaction, etc.
You're right, unfortunately the end result of that will not be good news for the OU's of the world.
What will inevitably come of the never ending game of musical chairs that is conference realignment is that the major conferences, those that consist of the top 65-70ish athletic programs in the country, will unite and form an athletic union that allows them to: A) Negotiate a television deal as a group, and b) create a divisional structure that's more closely linked geographically than current expansion has allowed, and c) eliminate the NCAA.
It'll take a bit of time for this to happen, but the writing's on the wall, and there is already a major conference commissioner pushing this approach. It makes the most sense financially and provides a model that helps preserve traditional rivalries, which are being altered substantially by current realignment.