What Big 12 Basketball Will Look Like if Realignment Has Its Way...Again

Can you believe just two years ago many left the Big 12 for dead? Oh yes. Nebraska and Colorado went to the Big Ten and Pac-12 respectively and that lovely word, realignment, became the hot topic in the world of college athletics. Despite only ten teams, the basketball side of the Big 12 had one of their better seasons in 2011-12 and with the additions of West Virginia and TCU (meh), it should somewhat make up for the losses of Missouri and Texas A&M.

If you've kept up with Brett McMurphy's timeline, you know Florida State, Clemson and Miami are rumored to have interest in joining the conference. So what does this mean for Big 12 basketball if they all join the league?

The answer after the jump.

In short, it would stink. Just awful. Now I understand these would be football moves but this ain't Big12football.com. Let's run through what we know about these hoops powerhouses who currently compete in the ACC:

Miami: Total graveyard. They've played hoops on South Beach since 1948, which just screams contender. The Hurricanes lost 24 games in their first year as a member of the Big East conference in 1991-92 and oddly enough coaches like Leonard Hamilton and Frank Haith had only a moment of success there before moving on to bigger and better things. The perception now is The U has turned a corner with the hiring of former George Mason coach Jim Larranaga. They nearly made the field of 68 in 2011-12 but they still fall way way short of being a consistent player in any conference frankly.

Florida State: Not only is FSU a good fit on the football side but Seminole basketball is as good as its been since Pat Kennedy ran things in Tallahassee. Leonard Hamilton's teams defend opponents to the death and now have a Sweet 16 and ACC Tournament Championship to show for it. In some ways, Florida State would replace Missouri quite nicely. If all goes well, FSU will make the tourney pretty much every year plus top recruits are already finding they're way down there and fans are starting to come to games. Florida State becoming a winner. How weird does that sound?

Clemson: For some reason, this is the school I have the most opposition out of the three, even though they have more history than Miami. I guess that's what a 16-15 season will do to my opinion of a program. Oliver Purnell took the scraps leftover by Larry Shyatt and put together four years of 21 wins+ and three NCAA berths. After Purnell left for DePaul, new coach Brad Brownell juuust squeaked into the field in 2011 but now there are doubts if he can win with his own players. Will a move to the Big 12 raise their hoops profile? Not really, considering they'd be leaving the storied ACC.

But it could've been worse. After all, there could have been no Big 12 to talk or blog about. With all due respect to Miami and Clemson, the Big 12 can do better. I'M LOOKIN AT YOU, LOUISVILLE.