The Return of Big Ten Expansion Talk: Alvarez Says Conference Expansion Will Look East

Too many advantages to the university — academically, athletically, economically — to pass up. Big Ten membership would benefit College Park for decades to come.

Since it’s highly unlikely the Big Ten would expand only to 13 members, this probably means two would be chosen. From the conference’s perspective, the two most attractive and logical candidates are Rutgers and Maryland (with Syracuse also a possibility in an expansion to 16). I know many Terrapin fans have emotional ties to the ACC, but the Big Ten is the only conference I would leave it for. For public institutions, it’s the equivalent of the Ivy League.

Does the Big Ten have any lacrosse teams? I did not see it listed under Men’s Sports in the Big Ten website.

I believe Penn State and Ohio State currently field teams. Were Maryland and Rutgers to go in, there would be four members (the same number as the ACC currently has for men’s lacrosse); whether that would be enough for it to be recognized as a conference sport under Big Ten guidelines, I do not know. (While five Big Ten schools — Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — have men’s ice hockey teams, there is no Big Ten ice hockey championship. Minnesota and Wisconsin play in the WCHA, the three others are part of the CCHA.) If the Big Ten grew to 16 members, adding Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and Notre Dame, you’d have six schools with men’s lacrosse programs.

I understand how many people love ACC basketball, but truth be told the glory days of a 7-team, closely-knit conference aren’t coming back. If basketball were that big a deal, a national power such as Kansas wouldn’t have found itself dangerously close to being without a conference, as almost happened in June. Like it or not, football runs the show — and frankly, there isn’t much of a show where ACC football is concerned. (Ironic, since the conference was founded primarily for football, in response to the Southern Conference’s no-bowl policy.)

With Big Ten football, you get brand names — real brand names — coming into College Park each fall, teams such as Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa. Even the least of these would have more pizzazz than Florida State or Miami, leading to an eventual expansion of Byrd to 65,000 seats or so. And the Big Ten isn’t bereft of strong basketball, not with programs such as Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue.

Moving to the Big Ten had all sorts of benefits for Penn State in the past two decades, not just in sports (without the Big Ten, its basketball teams probably still play at dilapidated Rec Hall), but in academics and research; anyone associated with PSU will tell you that. The same thing will happen to Nebraska over the next few years, not just athletically but academically as it takes part in the Big Ten research consortium, the CIC. I want Maryland to receive all the advantages of Big Ten membership, giving it higher stature among American flagship universities.

Oh, just one more thing: “U of MD is and always has been a basketball school.” Not if you examine university history. As recently as the early ‘50s, basketball games at Ritchie Coliseum were held as preliminaries to…intercollegiate boxing (ask Bud Millikan). What I’m saying is, things change, and often to do what’s best for you, you’ll have to change, too. And for the University of Maryland, joining the Big Ten would benefit it for decades to come.

If they were to expand to 14 or 16 teams with the likes of Maryland, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh/Rutgers. You put those teams with Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and a back to form Indiana, that league has more prestigious programs than the ACC and woulf give the Big East a run for its money. You lose Duke and UNC, but gain Michigan State and Syracuse. The title of “basketball school” would still be there for us, and I dont think it would hurt our recruiting, and it will certainly do nothing but help the football program.