So Long, ACC

On Monday, November 19^th one of the original members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) made the move to the Big 10 Conference.  That is when the University of Maryland Terrapins decided after sixty years to make the switch.  The main reasoning behind this was it should help alleviate the budget deficit that was mostly created when former Athletic Director Debbie Yow had luxury boxes and suites built at Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium.  Currently, a large majority of those are going unsold during football season.  Since the Big Ten (which will now have fourteen teams) has their own network, Maryland will share those finances with the other thirteen teams.  A day after the Terrapins were Big Ten bound the Rutgers Scarlet Knights left the Big East Conference to join Maryland in the Big Ten.  This move for the Terrapins will take effect on July 1^st, 2014.  With the move the seven sports that were cut approximately one year ago at Maryland will hopefully be brought back sometime in the future.  In terms of football it will probably be a few years before they are relevant again now that they will be playing schools such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Ohio State University.  While having these schools come to Byrd Stadium every other year should greatly increase ticket sales that will not necessarily translate to wins on the field.  In order to switch conferences Maryland will also have to potentially pay a fifty million dollar exit fee that they are preparing to fight legally.  This move also surprised ACC Commissioner John Swofford because Maryland President Wallace D. Loh had been talking to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney only through media reports the previous weekend.   Despite repeated attempts, Swofford didn’t ever hear back from any officials at Maryland.  On one hand, Maryland football coaches see this as a greater opportunity to recruit in the Midwestern region.  Conversely, the Maryland men’s lacrosse team which is one of the sports’s most well known and oldest has been put in a bind because the Big Ten Conference doesn’t play lacrosse.  I’m personally going to miss the University of Maryland’s athletic teams competing in the ACC because that is how I grew up watching them.                

by Kris L.