One of the primary questions regarding ACC expansion - who goes in which conference, and how is scheduling effected? - has been answered. The ACC announced at their annual winter meetings that Syracuse will be joining Maryland in the Atlantic division, while Pittsburgh will reside in the Coastal.

The league is also adding a game to the conference schedule for football and two to the basketball schedule; meanwhile, it's still unclear when Pitt and 'Cuse will officially join the conference, but John Swofford said it appears it'll be "2013 at the earliest."

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University of Maryland President Wallace Loh announced today that he was accepting the recommendations of the President's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and cutting eight teams from Maryland's athletic department.

"It is with regret that I announce my decision to accept the recommendations of the President's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, delivered a week ago, that eight athletic teams be discontinued as of June 30, 2012. Of course, all scholarship commitments and coaches' contracts will be honored."

There was one small hope offered by Loh to save those programs, but it sounds like it would be a long shot.

Per Patrick Stevens on Twitter, quoting Loh:

"Director Anderson also recommended that supporters of any discontinued teams "be given the opportunity to raise 8 years’ worth of total program costs by June 30, 2012"

So it appears those sports being cut will be given the opportunity to continue, if they can gather enough support. However, there is a catch. They have to gather enough funding not just for one additional year of funding, but for eight years. How much would that cost? I again go back to the math/statistics wiz that is

Patrick Stevens. Again, via twitter:

So eight years of funding the swimmings is a little more than $11.5M. Men's track and tumbling: $9.46M. Men's tennis and water polo: $8M

Is that achievable? Read more after the jump.

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We don't spend too terribly much time on non-revs around these parts, for a variety of reasons, not least of which time constraints. But yesterday was a pretty big day for all of Maryland athletics. Like, national championship big.

That's right: Terps field hockey clinched their second-straight national championship yesterday, defeating UNC 3-2 in overtime on a Jill Whitmer goal that, frankly, looked sort of incredible watching in real time (possibly because I don't know too much about the sport, but hopefully not). Anyway, that capped a furious Maryland comeback: the Terps trailed 2-0 with four minutes to go in the game, and in fact the game-tying goal came on a penalty corner with no time on the clock.

Props and congrats go out to Maryland field hockey for making everyone over here look good. That's the fifth national title in seven years, and only further cements Missy Meharg's legendary status.

Elsewhere, men's soccer had their first match of the NCAA Tournament, easily defeating West Virginia 4-0 at Ludwig, thanks in large part to a Casey Townsend hat trick. They'll move on to face 12th-seeded Louisville, who was actually flirting with the top spot at the beginning of the season. That'll be next Sunday (the 27th) at Ludwig; hopefully the place is rocking.

(And more good news in that area: 4th-seeded Boston College, who was Maryland's potential Elite Eight opponent, was upset by Rutgers. That means that Louisville will be the toughest opposition Maryland faces until/unless they get to the Final Four.)

We do have one final sadder note: women's soccer fell to Oklahoma State in the Sweet Sixteen, 1-0. OSU was actually the higher seed going into the game and Maryland gave them a run for their money, but couldn't pull off the upset.

I'm sure I missed some other non-rev stuff - tough to keep up with 27-and-soon-to-be-19 sports, you know - so if you notice something, add it to the comments. 

The big news to come out of the lengthy, long-awaited "Report of the President's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics" (translation: "Report of the President's Commission on Saving Maryland's Athletic Department from Financial Hell") was, of course, the recommendation that Maryland discontinue seven sports. (Eight, technically, but c'mon: do people really count outdoor and indoor track as separate teams?)

That recommendation, though, accounted for only one of the 26 pages of the report. What was on the other 25 pages? What other changes are coming? Did they say to fire Randy Edsall?

No, actually, on the last one. As for the first two: read on. I went through the report to glean what information I could, so you don't have to. Check past the jump to see what else the Commission recommended in layman's terms, because I literally could not describe them in technical ones. But first:

How did we get here?

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Well, the commission delegated with saving Maryland's athletic department from financial disaster has come out with its 26-page report. Among other recommendations, it suggests cutting seven teams: men's cross country, men's track, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's tennis, women's acrobatics and tumbling (i.e., competitive cheer), and women's water polo.

Obviously sucks to have to do this, but really, Maryland doesn't have any other choice but to make major changes, and that includes cutting sports. It's terrible, but it's where we are. Can't just ignore it.

Important to note that these are recommendations; nothing has gotten to Kevin Anderson or Wallace Loh, and they're making the final call. The Sun says Loh's call "is expected within the next couple of weeks."

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Phew. What a whirlwind 48 hours. We'll get to more stuff about the two newest members of the ACC, but if Maryland has any say, the train isn't stopping here. Per the Jeff Barker at the Baltimore Sun, the Terrapins' athletic department is partnering with - get this - Duke, in privately pushing for the addition of two more teams, thereby making the ACC the first conference to go to 16.

Maryland and Duke are among those privately expressing interest in a 16-team conference, according to ACC-member representatives with knowledge of recent private discussions. According to the representatives, other ACC schools also favor moving to 16 but at least one unnamed member was against expansion. [...]

But officials from two ACC schools cautioned Sunday that the conference was not close to being ready to approve Connecticut - not all members are on board with that move - or any other school as a 15th or 16th member. The officials, who declined to be named while the matter was ongoing, declined to put a timetable on the next possible expansion.

Barker singles out Rutgers and UConn as two of the schools under consideration, and that's no surprise. He also mentions that Florida State wants to make sure that the football profile of the conference remains high through any further expansion.

And John Swofford himself seems moderately open to the idea of getting even bigger, saying he isn't "philosophically opposed" to the conference going to 16 teams. And if they want to, they'll have plenty of options, given that Swofford also claimed that at least 10 schools had contacted him about membership.

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If you were around here last summer, you might remember the wealth of discussion about the Big Ten potentially snapping up Maryland. Ultimately, of course, nothing came of it, and it looks like nothing will, though something could potentially go down should the conference decide to go to 16, as unlikely as that appears to be in the near future.

But another "Big" conference hasn't given up the dream of expanding. I missed this yesterday, but a friendly h/t goes out to both BC Interruption and SBN DC:

The dream scenario would be the current league, plus TCU and BC and Maryland and if three schools of that quality were added, then a 12th school could be a Villanova or Central Florida and the conference would clearly be better. However, adding Villanova or Central Florida as the 10th school or adding both as the 10th and 11th schools would not add a thing to the conference and thus is not attractive to anyone at this point.

That comes from a conversation Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Paul Zeise had with Pitt AD Steve Pederson and West Virginia AD Oliver Luck. Takeaway for you: yes, the Big East wants Maryland.

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Ever since Debbie Yow left her gig in College Park, we've been hearing whispers that some funny accounting during her reign left Maryland in a bigger hole than it appears. How big? $83million big, per the WaPo and Testudo Times fave Steve Yanda.

The University of Maryland athletic department has been able to balance its finances at the end of each fiscal year using a unique arrangement, utilizing fundraising revenue kept in independent foundation accounts to pay for expenses.

But the revenue in the accounts - which surged after a number of successful seasons from the revenue-producing football and basketball teams in the early 2000s - could not keep pace with the department's expenses. When the department withdrew roughly $1 million at the end of the fiscal year that ended June 30 to help balance its most recent budget, the reserve funds were exhausted. [...]

At the same time, the athletic department over the past decade made several improvements to facilities used by revenue and non-revenue generating sports. Two of those projects - a new basketball arena and major renovations to the football stadium - largely contribute to the department's debt, which currently exceeds $83 million.

Translation: Maryland kept a rainy day fund from the days when they were raking in tons of dough (ie, 2001), and that money wasn't on the departments' books, but instead the UMCP Foundation's. That rainy day fund has been drawn from and drawn from with nothing being put back in, and now it's toast, leaving the department in the strange position of actually having to spend the same amount (or less than) they make.

Meanwhile, they're still trying to pay off Byrd Stadium renovations and the construction of the Comcast Center, which makes up a pretty hefty amount of debt that they need to get rid of. Apparently, they don't have any extra dough to do it with anymore. Yes, that is a mighty uncomfortable spot to be in.

And just in case there was any doubt as to who, exactly, might've been at fault for this funky system, Randy Eaton comes in with a zinger.

"I can just tell you - and I'm not throwing anybody under the bus and I'm not trying to make a bad comment - but I think there has long in this industry been a philosophy of ‘Get me through the next 10 years and then it's somebody else's problem,' " Eaton said. "Things that we're no longer doing here."

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