Conference Expansion Rumor of the Day: Maryland and the Big Ten?
by Ben Broman on Apr 19, 2010 4:39 PM EDT
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We mentioned in the MM how the Big Ten expansion process could be speeding up, and I drew the connection to maybe the formation of the entirely speculative Super-ACC accelerating in tandem. But now that possibility has been turned on its head, and instead the new rumor du jour is that Maryland could be switching conferences to the Big Ten.
Aside from the difficulties that travel would impose on Maryland in the Big Ten, I will admit that there are reasons that it could make sense, as Kevin McGuire argues. As a program, Maryland brings in the DMV market, which is rather sizable, a strong academic reputation, and adequacy on both the football and basketball fronts. Maryland might seem a little out of the way geographically, but no moreso than Rutgers. They fit all the criteria that the Big Ten is looking for.
The problem here is that Maryland has very little incentive to leave their current conference. The Big East is the weakest power conference remaining; if Cincinnati, Syracuse, or Rutgers made the jump, it wouldn't be lateral. Notre Dame, of course, has no conference currently, while Missouri and Nebraska could make a lateral move from a Texas-dominated conference to a more sensible geographic fit. That's not the case for UMD.
While certainly a better move for Maryland than the potential Big East rumor that refused to die, the Big Ten provides little incentive to jump the ACC ship. Maryland would still be a geographical outlier, even more than they are now, and would remain a conference stepchild. The TV deal the Big East offers is certainly better than the deal the ACC has, but the ACC is on the verge of renegotiating and could end up with a pretty solid deal, potentially moving to FOX or NBC. Is $2mil in revenue (the difference between the ACC and Big Ten in 2008) that big of a deal? (The Big Ten has a bigger advantage than I first saw, but one that should soon be closed by the new TV deal).
The biggest obstacle is the fact that Maryland is a critical part of the ACC; Swofford and Co. might cater to Tobacco Road, but UMD is still a founding member, and that means something for both them and the ACC. Leaving behind the conference Maryland has been in since 1953 would be no easy task, especially if all the Big Ten provided in return was slightly more revenue.
Debbie Yow shot down the Big East speculation, and would likely do the same to any Big Ten talk. No hard evidence is connecting the two parties, so there's no real reason to assume anything is going on. And even if Maryland qualifies, they have less reason to make a move than any other target. Let's pass on this one, both for desires and likelihood.
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Ben, in the beginning of the second paragraph
I think you meant to say “Aside from the difficulties that travel would impose on Maryland in the ACC Big Ten.”
Pardon me if I’m wrong.
Maryland will always be an ACC team.
Plus Basketball would be ruined if we switched. No more MD-Duke games that actually mean anything.
I would really miss MD-Duke, MD-UNC games but...
From a football standpoint this would be an obvious upgrade. Imagine getting to play Michigan, PSU, Ohio State, Mich. State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame (if they switch too). And from a basketball point of view its still not that bad. Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue, Pitt, Wisconsin. I just think that the Big Ten is a much more deep conference, but still has some major powerhouses in both basketball and football. While the ACC is semi- top heavy in basketball, and just horrendous in football. Maybe I just think this because I’m from Boston and not an alumni yet, so I havent been around the ACC traditions for too long. But I really hope this happens, I would love it. I think Maryland fits better into that conference anyway.
Agreed but...
The ACC isn’t THAT superior to the Big Ten in basketball. Sure Duke and UNC are traditional powerhouses, and our biggest rivals (even if they refuse to believe so). But besides that do we really care that much when we beat Clemson, Wake, GT, or any of those other mid-level ACC schools? Thats because those schools are so up and down. But if we were in the Big Ten, I think that there is more schools that are good at basketball, rather than 2 great basketball programs and everyone else. Not to mention we would be one of the real elite teams in that conference, whereas in the ACC we will ALWAYS be below the Dookies and UNC. Just saying
Ben, I am not sure what you are referring to with the 2mil difference
They show that each conference gets NCAA money, BCS money, Non-BCS Bowl money, and the TV money. Given this data, the 800-lb gorilla is the football TV money. So, taking total revenues and dividing them about equally among the conference teams, each ACC team got about 10 mil from these sources and each Big 10 team got about 28 mil.
I have no idea how accurate the data is. I do know that the total annual TV revenue going to the NCAA from the bball tourney and other NCAA events is about 500 mil per year. So, subtracting costs for putting on the NCAA events, the split to the conferences they show is about what one should expect.
Was looking at "gross revenue"
I didn’t even look below it to see the differences, I assumed they were a breakdown of that number, which admittedly seemed pretty small. Thanks for pointing that out, I’ll fix it in the post.
I do think, though, that the difference still isn’t that big, because the ACC has the oldest TV deal of the bunch. The Big 10’s TV deal is pretty new, IIRC, which is why it’s so much bigger. The ACC’s new TV deal should close that gap substantially.
I agree with you.
I don’t understand that data. The football TV money really confused me. Add in the revenues from season ticket sales for their big football stadiums and the revenue differences would be even larger. It just doesn’t make sense.
no way
hurts recruiting and god i love beating duke
If the entire Duke fanbase took the form of one human being, you have to think that person would look exactly like Tucker Carlson, and we'd all like to punch that person in the face.
Example
Lets say these teams join: Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Missouri, Nebraska and even Texas. Also, West Virginia might be an option.
If there is a strong mid-atlantic/north atlantic presence UMD should be serious about joining.
The added schools do make it interesting
But those are a lot of events that need to happen first in order to make this discussion compelling enough to even have.
by jaypee on Apr 19, 2010 10:01 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
All this talk of Big10 expansion is pretty exciting.
You know that once one team makes a move, the dominoes will start to fall and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I’m not sure when Maryland started to get into the conversation, though. I thought that it was more about Texas, Notre Dame, Pitt, Nebraska and Rutgers and whether they’d join or not. Changing conferences gives me mixed feelings, but if the money is ridiculous then I’d say go for it because it would be better for us in the long run. Notre Dame would become the Duke of the Big10 anyways just not as good at basketball (I hate ND).
Don't let Duke hold the university hostage
The advantages of Big Ten membership — from vastly increased athletic revenue, a chance to be peers with the top state universities in the nation, an academic consortium that provides hundreds of millions of dollars in research and a chance to build up the Terrapin football program by regularly having the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan visit Byrd Stadium (likely leading to its expansion) — are simply too good to pass up. Foregoing this opportunity simply to maintain the campus’ basketball obsession with Duke is simply being ignorant. Yeah, there have been some great games, but times do change. I’m a College Park grad from the ’70s, and back then, Duke was an afterthought. The big basketball games — ones that had far more on the line in the days before at-large bids — were with N.C. State.. I like the ACC, but the Big Ten is the only conference I would leave it for.
aside from the fact we’d wouldn’t play duke every year for 2 basketball games and of course you could always schedule them for an out of conference game what is the loss of going to the big 10. who knows you could actually have a legitimate rival in penn state. football wise it could help. there are plenty of good basketball teams in the big 10. would you rather play ohio st, mich st, purdue, illinois, indiana and iowa or duke, north carolina, virginia, va tech, b.c., miami and clemson in basketball. unlikely maryland would leave the acc though.
One of the main reasons basketball recruits come to Maryland (i.e. Pe'shon, Mychal, Stogs, and many more)
is to play in the ACC.
The Big 10 is a football-first conference, and I don’t like that. Move to the Big 10, and we lose one of our major basketball recruiting pulls.
exactly what i was thinking
If the entire Duke fanbase took the form of one human being, you have to think that person would look exactly like Tucker Carlson, and we'd all like to punch that person in the face.
Take this scenario:
If the Big 10 were to become a “superpower conference”, wouldn’t you want to join instead of being on the outside looking in? Hypothetically, if Texas, Syracuse, Pitt, and Notre Dame join, the Big 10 would be the place players would want to be for either football or basketball IMO cus it would be stacked with top tier programs. With the exception of ND, they would be adding great basketball schools. But a lot would need to happen in order for this power conference scenario to occur.
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