Maryland puts tradition aside in leaving ACC

Former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams used to complain a lot about the ACC.

He
didn’t like that the men’s basketball tournament is usually played in
Greensboro or Charlotte, or that the conference headquarters are in
North Carolina. He and some Marylanders often said they felt like
outsiders, or at least too much on the periphery of the league. Williams
even once famously claimed Maryland felt like “Siberia.”

So if
Greensboro, which is 322 miles from College Park, Md., is too far away,
what does that make of Chicago, which is 774 miles away?

Chicago
is home to the Big Ten’s office, and as of Monday morning, Maryland is
headed to the conference after the school's Board of Regents voted to
follow the lead of its president to make the controversial move. And
that’s just the tipping point of irrationality that forged this hasty
decision void of a thought-out, long-term view.

There are just reasons for Maryland making this move.

The
school’s athletic department is currently losing about $5 million a
year, and that figure is projected to reach $17 million by 2017. This
past summer, Maryland cut seven of its 27 varsity sports teams, shaving
off seven percent of its $58 annual budget.

By simple virtue of
being in the Big Ten should mean about $7 million a year more than what
Maryland would get as a member of the ACC, which next fall grows to 14
schools with the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse. That, of course,
doesn’t include how much more the ACC’s television revenue stream will
grow once a revised contract includes its new affiliation with Notre
Dame.

In addition, some arguments from the Maryland side suggest
that it can put more fannies in the seats at Byrd Stadium by bringing in
Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska, but how often will those
schools visit in a 14-team Big Ten, and is that the way to build a
program, to rely on other fan bases to fund your non-revenue sports?

That’s where the negatives begin to pile up.

What ever happened to tradition? What about culture? Family?

Maryland
is dousing those ideals with kerosene accompanied by a lit match. Up in
flames goes 60 years of generation building. To heck with storied
basketball rivalries with North Carolina and Duke. Forget the greatest
ACC basketball game ever played in that unforgettable 1974 clash with
North Carolina State. And who needs those ACC football banners and 1953
national championship?

The Maryland brass are trading trips to Clemson, N.C. State and Miami with trips to Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern.

As
a charter member of the ACC, Maryland has experienced its share of
success and has played a key role in how the fabric of the conference
has evolved.

From students singing Amen toward the end of
home basketball games to the unforgettable smell of old Cole Field
House, the greatest place to watch an ACC basketball game (sorry Cameron
Indoor Stadium), Maryland is the ACC.

Duke’s and UNC’s visits
in basketball aren’t just games, they are events. Senators, congressman,
State Department officials and other regional high rollers made Cole
Field House and later Comcast Center a priority on those occasions.

Some
Maryland supporters that have long felt as Williams has, believing that
getting out from underneath the shadows of the North Carolina schools
is the answer to many of their problems, similar to Texas A&M’s
decision to part from its rivalry with Texas for the SEC.

That is
simply silly, especially since football is driving the train these
days. And if Maryland can’t consistently win in the ACC, why does it
believe life in the Big Ten is a fair exchange?

The bottom line
is this was about the bottom line. Maryland’s president, athletic
director, and football and basketball coaches haven’t even been in
College Park for more than two years, and none have any previous ties to
the university, state or even the ACC. So they simply don’t understand
the culture or how this would affect fans.

In fact, this past weekend the tenor of the fan base suggested the move was a bad idea in a Washington Post poll that revealed 70 percent of Maryland fans were against leaving the ACC.

Former
Maryland basketball star and U.S. Congressman Tom McMillan, who is on
the Board of Regents, voted against the move, telling the Washington Post it wasn’t thought out enough and that it was “antithetical.” McMillan also said, “It’s all about money. That’s what it is.”

Yet,
where will Maryland come up with the $50 million exit fee and who’s
going to fund the $100 million in renovation to the football stadium
that is badly needed to show it cares about competing on the field?

One lifelong Maryland fan said what many are thinking Monday afternoon:

“I
have loved the Terps and the culture and rivalries in the ACC for my
entire sporting life,” said Chris Snear, who is also a professional
hockey official and is a golf pro just outside of Washington, D.C., in
northern Virginia. “And a move to the Big Ten makes Maryland just
another school in a big conference."