Maryland to leave ACC for Big 10

[jterrell]

The Big 10 is stronger academically across the board than the ACC. There is no NC State or FSU there. All except Nebraska are members of the AAU and they were as recently as 2 years ago.

The most important thing for Rutgers and Maryland is the CIC not athletics. The Big 10 plus the University of Chicago (basically has emeritus status as they no longer emphasis athletics) share much more academically than any other conference.

Ten years from now the research at both Rutgers and Maryland will dwarf what they have now.

But let's not kid ourselves. This move was financial, pure and simple. .70 inside the "footprint" vs. .12 outside for the BTN. That's millions of dollars a month, potentially even more if Fox leverages the YES network with BTN.

It is about grabbing the NYC and Wash DC markets.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply wrong. It certainly helps that they have strong academics but money is the root of all conference expansion and change.

The Big 10 did NOT get stronger academically or athletically with this move. They did get richer come next tv renegotiation.

They also help drive another stake into the ACC/Big East which could free up billions of tv dollars in short order.

The big 4 conferences are set to divvy up the entire pie before long and what a large pie it is with the coming playoffs. It really is just a matter of who lands where at this point.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I see adding Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and UConn vs losing Maryland as a very large upgrade. Not sure how the red-headed step child applies unless many other major moves happen.

Upgrade for Maryland though too if include everything involved.

The problem is the ACC is becoming the Big East. A basketball conference that has football schools and adding Notre Dame in football only, Syracuse and Pittsburgh only reinforces that notion.

Just a matter of time before the SEC decides it wants a Virginia market and Tech heads south or someone, SEC or Big 12 nabs Florida State or Miami.

Once that happens we'll see the same thing again.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

The big 4 conferences are set to divvy up the entire pie before long and what a large pie it is with the coming playoffs. It really is just a matter of who lands where at this point.

Yea, the ACC dropped the ball by not taking WVU when they were begging for entrance. The Big East is still on life support and losing Rutgers did not help, but adding WVU and aggresively persuing anyone from the Big 12 that wanted to jump ship ahould've been the stradegy.

Now it seems that the ACC will be raided if Florida State or Miami feels shaken by this recent move.

 

[jterrell]

Yea, the ACC dropped the ball by not taking WVU when they were begging for entrance. The Big East is still on life support and losing Rutgers did not help, but adding WVU and aggresively persuing anyone from the Big 12 that wanted to jump ship ahould've been the stradegy.

Now it seems that the ACC will be raided if Florida State or Miami feels shaken by this recent move.

FSU is as good as gone if the Big 12 or SEC invites them. They voted against the rise to the 50m buyout. If the Big 12 wasn't flirting so heavily with ND for the past year they'd likely have grabbed FSU and Louisville.

The issue is really individual schools not wanting to lose yearly games against UT. The former big 12 north members didn't much like being the big 12 north. They like those games in Texas which opens up recruiting and makes them more money.

I think it is short-sighted though. Solid re-alignment partners will provide good weekly match ups and increased revenue. I want the Big 12 at 16 teams ASAP. But it seems they are more than willing to remain patient and see who is leftover to choose from. There will be good options for sure.

They don't need to panic because they have 8 or 9 top 50 football teams which is unheard of depth in a 10 team league.

 

[StanleySpadowski]

It is about grabbing the NYC and Wash DC markets.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply wrong. It certainly helps that they have strong academics but money is the root of all conference expansion and change.

The Big 10 did NOT get stronger academically or athletically with this move. They did get richer come next tv renegotiation.

They also help drive another stake into the ACC/Big East which could free up billions of tv dollars in short order.

The big 4 conferences are set to divvy up the entire pie before long and what a large pie it is with the coming playoffs. It really is just a matter of who lands where at this point.

I said that it was finances, just a little more in-depth than you did.

I would argue that the Big 10 did get stronger academically. It opened up 2 more avenues of research sharing for the CIC plus it opens up their contiguous rule to go after UVA, then UNC. It's not like they went after poorer performing academic schools like WVU.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It is about grabbing the NYC and Wash DC markets.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply wrong. It certainly helps that they have strong academics but money is the root of all conference expansion and change.

The Big 10 did NOT get stronger academically or athletically with this move. They did get richer come next tv renegotiation.

They also help drive another stake into the ACC/Big East which could free up billions of tv dollars in short order.

The big 4 conferences are set to divvy up the entire pie before long and what a large pie it is with the coming playoffs. It really is just a matter of who lands where at this point.

Yeah, because you said so right JT? No, it's not about Athletics plain and simple. It's about much more then that and Athletic Standing, even if we said that Athletics were 2nd, would be a very distant second but OK, if you say it's all about market, that's fine. Not right but fine.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I said that it was finances, just a little more in-depth than you did.

I would argue that the Big 10 did get stronger academically. It opened up 2 more avenues of research sharing for the CIC plus it opens up their contiguous rule to go after UVA, then UNC. It's not like they went after poorer performing academic schools like WVU.

Much much stronger Stan. Maryland, over the next few years is going to get tremendous amounts of money from 3 different projects that are slated to be funded by the Federal Government. Two of which, can not be made public but one of which, NOAA Facilities, are going to be funded for huge Dollars. That facility will be one of seven (I believe) world wide that will be used to tie in World Weather Patterns. Currently, like we have our own NOAA that tracks weather patterns, other parts of the world do too. They are currently not linked. The plan is to create a universal Weather Agency that tracks and collects all weather data all over the world. Maryland is one of the locations that is very likely to be tagged for this project in the U.S. They are going to get a ton of money to develop this.

Rutgers is already very well positioned in this regard and will continue to get lots of money for Research. You are 100% accurate in your projections Stan.

 

[DFWJC]

I said that it was finances, just a little more in-depth than you did.

I would argue that the Big 10 did get stronger academically. It opened up 2 more avenues of research sharing for the CIC plus it opens up their contiguous rule to go after UVA, then UNC. It's not like they went after poorer performing academic schools like WVU.

I think the two schools that the Big 10 added fall about right in the middle of the Big 10 pack academically. They may even be slightly above...hard to say.
The main thing is that they didn't downgrade themselves, and the Big 10 doesn't really have a major weak link in academics. They even have two "elite" schools in Michigan and Northwestern.

Thge number one job of universities is providing education. But reasearch is a growing part of it and the two are becoming more intertwined with high revenue and grants drawing better profs. There's still a disconnect though. It's possible to be one the highest rated universities but only be a top 50 "research university". Dartmouth is an example...especially if measure by research funding (which can be silly). Pittburgh is the other way around--extremely high research ranking but only so-so overall.

The good news is that both UMd and Rutgers on going up and not down.