Quote:
Originally Posted by DFWJC
The debatable part would be the overall athletic dept as reflected by the Director's Cup. They do well there. Event though UofM's football program has been a long time joke, they are actually pretty decent overall in sports.
Academics--I'm not sure I've ever seen them rated in the top half of the ACC overall. Duke, UVa, UNC, Wake Forest, Ga Tech,..... not easy to do. Even just taking the simple US News ratings, they tend to be near the very bottom in that conference. I supect they end up ahead of Florida St and NC State. That may be it, but I'm not sure though. They have some strong individual programs so its not anythng personal. hey compared to the SEC, they would rule.
I do know they're getting some great funds for research lately. So that's good news if they make proper use of the funds.
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Fair enough, as it wasn't a loaded question. The last US News and WR I read had them ranked 8th in the conference academically, ahead of NC State, VA Tech, Florida St. and Clemson.
Football has suffered in recent years, but historically has been one of the better programs in the conference. Basketball has had it's hiccups here and there, but again historically it's been in the upper echelon of the ACC.
Since it's obvious that the powers that be in North Carolina want to keep basketball as the primary focus of the conference, I see the addition of Louisville as a win-win for both. Maryland will reap the financial benefits of being in a strong conference that generates a ton of money through football. At the same time, they maintain a strong competitive basketball schedule in a Big 10 conference that is close to on par with the ACC.
In Louisville the ACC gets a school with a basketball rich tradition and a football program that has been better than Maryland's recently. Although academically I don't think Louisville is on the same level as UMD.
Solely from a fans perspective I'm going to miss the annual basketball games against Duke and Carolina, whether they considered us a rival or not.
However, I fully understand why Maryland felt it necessary to join the Big 10. It was a no-brainer.