Academics is absolutely critical for any university the Big Ten goes after! Rutgers University is academically compatible with every school in that conference is a member of the prestigious AAU. This move would be tremendous for Rutger’s and the Big Ten! The ACC is run by the basketball powers located in North Carolina. Mr. Swofford is an alumnus of UNC and a former player on their Bball team under legendary Coach Smith. This conference has cherry-picked the Big East whenever they wanted to expand. Everything that goes around, comes around. The ACC is a basketball conference despite the like of Fla. St, Miami, Clemson, and Va Tech. Adding Syracuse and Pitt merely solidify that position.

1. There is no geographic area called ‘Northern Maryland’.

Eastern Shore
Southern Maryland
Central Maryland
Western Maryland

Those are the four geographic areas in Maryland. And Baltimore is considered to be in the Central Maryland geographic area.

2. Not all people who live in Maryland are UMCP and/or PSU fans. I, for one, am a fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, and I live in Baltimore (and have done so for more than 30 years). There are IU Alumni Associations in multiple cities and towns in Maryland (and the majority are not tiny, less than 25, in membeship).

I formerly worked with (I am now retired) several people who live in Maryland, but support North Carolina, or Duke, or Wake Forest, or Kentucky, or South Carolina, or Virginia, or Virginia Tech, etc. (multiple people supporting each). Maryland is not a monolithic state in terms of which school the residents support, nor even primarily a two-school state.

3. UMCP is about 30 miles SW of Baltimore, while PSU is more than 150 miles NNW of Baltimore.

Now if you want to further display your lack of knowledge of Maryland (geographic or otherwise), be my guest.

I guess this is good news in Connecticut.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/12/notre-dame-to-schedule-acc-football-opponents-as-partial-member/

At the time both FSU and Maryland voted against the 50 million exit fee. For all the same reasons, Maryland was not deterred and will not pay the 50 million to exit the ACC either:

1) They voted against the 50 million. A university cannot be compelled to pay an exit fee they never agreed to. The number they would be held to is the one they agreed to pay, the previous 20 million.

2) The exit fee itself is supposed to represent the damages the conference incurs from the departure of the exiting university. Anything above the actual damages is punitive, and no court would hold up punitive damages for exiting a conference.

3) The exit fee is a starting point and will be negotiated as all exit fees are. The 50 million will be much closer to 20 million.

Once Maryland has left, the real exit fee will be known to all. At that point FSU, VT, Clemson, and GT will begin the process of choosing their next conference. Prior to the start of the new playoff system all of those universities will be in either the SEC, BIG10, or BIG12.

Kind of watering down the B1G. Two gimme football games for the likes of Michigan, theOSU and Wisconsin and Nebraska. Ho, humm.

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…and outside of those teams, you also have perennial powerhouses such as Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, and Iowa. Nothing against the Big Ten, but from a football standpoint, the watering down is already there.

What’s more important to an institution of higher learning – athletics or learning?

Maybe some or most fans of the SEC thinks of it as much more of an athletic conference, and really doesn’t care that much about learning (a strange concept in my mind for a group of institutions that are supposed to be about higher learning).

Oh, and at one time, West Virginia University was considered for membership in the Big Ten, but interest dropped to zero when the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) reviewed West Virginia’s academic program, among other things. You see, a school MUST be a member of, or eligible for membership in, the CIC to be considered for membership in the Big Ten. WVU didn’t meet the criteria that the CIC has set for membership. I suspect several SEC schools (and several schools in other conferences) would ‘fit’ the same scenario of non-eligibility.

That UMCP and Rutgers are being considered for membership in the Big Ten means that they are, or eligible for, membership in the CIC.

Until the Irish join another football conference the Big Ten will always leave them a seat at the table (and I’m saying this as a Big Ten fan who hates Notre Dame).

And ‘jaxhotspur11′, don’t forget that UMCP is located within the Baltimore-DC Combined Metropolitan Statistical Area, with a population of about 8 million. And that area is not that poor of a recruiting area in any sport, either.

SEC fans? Remember, the Big Ten is not only a football conference, but also basketball and multiple other sports. Along with being one of the best rated academic conferences in the US.

Tonight’s report on Baltimore’s Channel 11 indicated that the Big 10 was willing to pay a majority of UMCP’s ‘exit fee’ to the ACC. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rutgers U got the same support, and several people and/or companies in the NYC area chipped in to help pay the exit fee from the Big Least.

One additional thing is that adding UMCP and Rutgers could be the impetus for all Big Ten teams to add lacrosse and women’s field hocky to the sports roster. No loss to UMCP or Rugers, but a big gain for the Big Ten, and Big Ten Network receipts (thus more money to the schools in the conference).

Notre Dame better figure it out. They’ll be left out. Even this year they are the odd man out, well unless KState can’t make an amazing comeback.

Also, I suspect that UnderArmour will be covering some of that exit fee.

Maryland is clearly the #3 basketball program in the ACC, and some say they are a sleeping giant in football if they could ever get their $h!+ together and keep their share of DC area recruits. This move may help them do just that.

I wanted Florida State and Virginia Tech…….but that was only because I thought there was no way we could grab Maryland and Rutgers!

Take that SEC!

” According to one individual privy to internal discussions within the Maryland athletic department, the school is also considering the move because of academics. Big Ten members, along with the University of Chicago, a former member of the conference, comprise the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium in which members collaborate on academic endeavors. Opportunities for expanding research in the agricultural, biotechnological and engineering fields, the individual said, presented an enticing allure for Maryland.”

http://m.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/university-of-maryland-in-talks-to-join-big-ten/2012/11/17/a9a8cde4-3104-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html