I was thinking about this today and figured I would post it ... football is obviously a way bigger draw throughout the season than basketball is, and that is the (only) reason it is driving conference expansion. More accurately, MONEY is driving conference expansion, and football represents a majority (but not the only, IMO) factor that determines how valuable a school is to a conference.
With that said ... why? Is it written in the stars? I honestly wonder if there is something "college basketball" (as if that is some unified organization, lol) could do to even the score a bit with football. Consider the TV ratings for last year's College Football Playoff:
22.45 million for Georgia vs. Ohio State in the CFP Semifinal
21.70 million for Michigan vs. TCU in the CFP Semifinal
17.22 million for Georgia vs. TCU in the National Championship
Now compare that to the Final Four last year:
17.7 million for North Carolina vs. Duke in the Final Four
17.1 million for Kansas vs. North Carolina in the National Championship
11.7 million for Kansas vs. Villanova in the Final Four
Just for some more comparisons from other years, consider these MUCH higher ratings for college hoops:
28.3 million for Duke vs. Wisconsin in the 2015 National Championship
23.9 million for Illinois vs. North Carolina in the 2005 National Championship
23.4 million for Louisville vs. Michigan in the 2013 National Championship
23.0 million for North Carolina vs. Gonzaga in the 2017 National Championship
It seems rather obvious that the "big time" college basketball events can draw at least as much as the big time college football events ... with having WAY more games per year, you would think that college hoops could somehow close the gap a bit here. Is it just that college basketball has to share the scene with both college football and/or the NFL until well into February? Our 2021 Big Ten Tournament championship game vs. Ohio State (the highest viewed game of that year) maxed out at over 6 million viewers ... that's more viewers than the following BOWL GAMES from last year:
5.8 million for Notre Dame vs. South Carolina in the Gator Bowl
5.4 million for Oklahoma vs. Florida State in the Orlando Bowl
4.8 million for Texas vs. Washington in the Alamo Bowl
4.2 million for USC vs. Tulane in the Cotton Bowl
Just some interesting food for thought on a slow Wednesday afternoon! I would be inclined to say that if School A and School B have relatively equal "football brand value" but School A gets great basketball ratings and School B is a non-starter ... a conference might legitimately consider basketball as "something that matters" for realignment.