Trust me: I wish I didn't have to talk about this. I wish I could talk about Jimmy Patsos (if that whole thing ever gets resolved) or Jabari Brown (fast-forward to 2:34), but unfortunately this is the biggest news of the day, at least for now. When Andy Katz wrote a piece on expansion yesterday, he mentioned that the Big Ten might be thinking outside the box more than the media is. An example school he gave was, yes, Maryland.
That's why at least one source said Maryland and Georgia Tech from the ACC and Vanderbilt out of the SEC make sense. ...
The natural rivalries for Maryland and Georgia Tech (the latter of which joined the AAU just last month) in the ACC might be too much to leave, but the money the Big Ten could offer may make this interesting.
Katz also supposedly mentioned Maryland as a potential candidate on TV late last night. This isn't the first time we've heard of Maryland connected to the Big Ten expansion, but it's certainly the most credible source we've heard it from.
And yes, just like before, parts of it make sense. Maryland would likely give, in my opinion, much more credible access to the Washington-Baltimore market than Rutgers or certainly UCONN gives for New York. They are probably the most academically prestigious of those schools, and the distance is about the same as the two mentioned above. They're generally competitive in football (2-10 was an aberration) and would be a giant boost to the Big Ten's basketball profile. In return, the Big Ten gives Maryland vastly expanded financial resources and potentially the ability to actually carry all 27 sports, which is causing strains currently.
Of course, they're still a geographical outlier and have much less reason to leave their conference than most other teams being recruited. Maryland won't find the acceptance they've been missing from the ACC in the Big Ten, and they're ingrained into the very fiber of the ACC; there has been no ACC without Maryland. Not to mention the fact that Maryland is a basketball school before everything else and the move would place football at the forefront while ignoring basketball (especially the rivalries).
Regardless of all that, if the Big Ten calls, you listen. You might not take them up on the offer, but you listen.