No idea :/
As we sit here on Sunday night, officially, that is still a rumor. The same holds true for Rutgers University, also said to be heading to the Big Ten as it's 14th member.
From a fan perspective, I'm pretty 'meh' on the whole thing. It's interesting, but is it a game changer for the league from a football competition perspective? No. The Big Ten has their horses already. This is simply a financial decision.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg reports:
Maryland's regents will vote Monday morning whether to accept an invitation to join the Big Ten Conference as a new member, a source tells ESPN.com. Under Armour founder and top Maryland booster Kevin Plank is "100 percent" supportive of the school joining the Big Ten, a regent has told ESPN.com.I would be willing to bet the regents will be voting 'yes'.
Hey, I get it. We all watched 60 Minutes tonight. College football is the catalyst that drives everything for collegiate athletic departments. All that really matters is the bottom line. This move makes sense, financially, for the league. It gets the Big Ten Network more exposure ($), and opens up the east coast as a new untapped market for league revenue ($$). And it makes even more sense for Maryland and potentially Rutgers.
This story from the Washington Post from back in June illustrates the broken system of college athletics that Brandon spoke of on 60 Minutes, and uses Maryland as it's poster-child.
With its multimillion-dollar deficit mounting and no deep-pocketed donor to cover the shortfall, the University of Maryland’s athletic department will proceed with plans to cut at least seven of its 27 varsity teams this weekend. The downsizing is an attempt to correct an unsustainable pattern many households know well: Spending more than you earn.It appears that the short-term solution to heal athletic department's dismal budgets, besides eliminating sports one by one, is to adopt the creation of super conferences. It's a path that we all probably saw coming just a couple years ago when Nebraska joined the league. Look around, this is a trend that is not slowing down.
