BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Colorado would get beaten as bad, if not worse, in the Big XII. West Virginia would probably score 85 on that defense.

 

Since when does Maryland have enough fan interest to be attractive to a conference on the make? It seems like a Rutgers situation where people look at the TV market and forget to count asses in seats.

 

Counting DC and Baltimore among your media markets seems to be more important than if more than 30,000 show up to Byrd Stadium. And the Terps get a decent amount of attention in DC when they are winning in either football or basketball, far more than BC in Boston or Rutgers in New Jersey/New York.

 

Colorado also won the Pac-12 men's basketball title in 2012. It will eventually receive far more TV money, and TV exposure in much larger markets, from the Pac-12 than it did from the Big 12. It is now alligned with universities in a growing part of the country, with a far higher academic profile than the Big 12. There are far more CU alums on the West Coast than in the Plains states. When they get a capable football coach, it is better positioned to recruit in California.

There was more to this move than strictly the first year or two in football, where they would be overmatched in whatever AQ league they played in. Ten years from now CU will be wondering why it ever stayed in the Big 12 as long as it did.

 

ESPN is on the UMD/Rutgers rumors now.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8644587/maryland-terrapins-rutgers-scarlet-knights-talks-join-big-ten-conference-sources-say

 

Yahoo has it now too. Forde saying an announcement could be as soon as next week.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaab--maryland--rutgers-in-serious-talks-about-move-to-big-ten.html


I wonder, if this is true, if the Notre Dame deal with the ACC played any role in pushing Maryland out. I've heard that privately a lot of folks with pull at schools such as Maryland and UVa were less than thrilled about the whole thing.

 

Maryland alumni are outraged about the thought of this.

Going to the Big Ten to be a conference doormat does not excite them.

 

I wonder if this move could backfire on Loh. The ESPN story makes it sound like he's the one pushing Maryland toward the Big Ten and he doesn't have the unanimous support of the trustees. I know the Maryland alumni in my family want nothing to do with the Big Ten or leaving the ACC. I have no idea if that's representative of Maryland alumni in general, though.

 

What I got from that is that Maryland's athletic department was $4 million in the red and had to cut seven varsity sports. How could it afford the exit fee? Would it come from the general fund?

 

Baltimore Sun has it being roughly 70-30 against a move.

Loh and Anderson have very unfavorable ratings amongst alumni. I'd love to see both gone.

 

No. They don't have it. If the Big Ten isn't ponying up the money, then Maryland must intend to fight it. That wouldn't be surprising since Loh has already said he doesn't think the fee is legal.