The Maryland-Big Ten Day of Reckoning is upon us

Today could be the biggest, most decisive day in Maryland athletics in years. Decades, maybe. Whatever happens in the coming hours will in many ways decide - at the very least substantially alter - the future of the entire department, for better or for worse.

I don't know about you, but I have butterflies.

The scenario: the Board of Regents is meeting in Baltimore early this morning. I imagine Wallace Loh and Brit Kirwan are (or have been) furiously canvassing their votes, trying to round up the nine yays they need to make this official. With the ridiculous amount of attention this has received, I expect we'll hear something today one way or the other. It could come as early as 10:00, or as late as 4:00. But it'll probably come.

An interesting twist, though, from Jeff Barker: some apparently believe that Kirwan can actually circumvent the BoR on this point and just authorize the move himself. For obvious reasons, that's probably inadvisable and far from ideal. All hell would break loose at that point, and things would get seriously ugly. There was a shot at it working had they just skirted past the BoR to begin with; asking them, having them shoot it down, then doing it anyway? Let's just say the optics ain't great. Then again, that option was probably a non-starter to begin with: they really, really needed BoR approval to show off the public. They had to be aware this would go over not-too-smoothly, and being able to point to nine high-ranking officials agreeing with it will strengthen their credibility. Kirwan, after all, isn't exactly a cult hero when it comes to Maryland sports; him going solo on a move like this would be adventurous to say the least.

Let this serve as your open thread.