Basketball attendance dropped because the team sucked. A bunch of AAC school elevated their bball programs while the two programs that were supposed to carry the conference - UConn and Memphis - floundered. If UConn and Memphis had done what they were supposed to the AAC would have been a very good bball conference.
Also the Big 12 as currently constructed is a great bball conference. You literally have the last two national champs coming from the Big 12. I'd be comfortable with the idea that the golden goose basketball program could survive there.
If you like UConn basketball you damn well better start rooting for the "football dream," because without it basketball is toast. That should be obvious, and i'll never understand the difficulty some of this fanbase has with simply rooting for all UConn teams.
The lack of football didn’t prevent Villanova from winning 2 of the past 6 national championships. It didn’t prevent Gonzaga from getting to 2 of the past 5 title games. It didn’t stop Loyola (Chi) from getting to the Final Four 4 years ago. There’s no way that the lack of a football program will kill a good basketball program.
Attendance didn’t drop just because some of the teams were below par, seasons, by the way, for which there were expectations going in but injuries helped to ruin. A big factor in the massive decline in attendance was the fact that the games were against opponents no one cared about and half the fans didn’t recognize.
Regardless of how good basketball is in the Big XII - and I agree that it has been very good in recent years - the same problems would exist as was the case in the AAC. There would be no meaningful rivalries and no tradition. The opponents wouldn’t be bringing any fans with them because of the distance - as opposed to Big East games when attendance is/was bolstered by fans of the opponents buying tuckers. The trips are too long and wear down the team to a greater degree than opponents in a conference which is centered much closer to most of those other members.
It would be a different story in the ACC where membership would make much more sense. Everyone would be in the same time zone. Trips would generally shorter. And you actually find alums of many of those colleges here in CT or within driving distance. The ACC includes some traditional rivals, names that are recognizable to just about everyone in CT, and schools which might even be attended by other members of the same family.