Maryland drops XC/track, but can find $50 MILLION to leave ACC

I realize this is all about football and maybe basketball tv revenue, but this is embarrassing. Maryland will not win a game in football in the Big Ten. They can barely pull it off in the ACC.

Basketball may be a wash, but the ACC is traditionally regarded as a basketball conference, and we have almost 60 years of rivalries we are throwing away because Wallace Loh and the Board of Trustees projects we can make more money in the Big Ten? These are the same guys who presided over the athletic department falling into the deficit in the first place.

There is no lacrosse in the Big Ten, so is the ACC going to be nice and let MD lax stay? Hilarious.

Soccer is better in the ACC, despite the Big Ten having a few reputable programs like Indiana and Wisconsin. I don;t even think all schools sponsor soccer.

Track and cross are obviously better in the Big Ten, but our teams are in disarray, and probably just one step away from being officially axed, sine now travel will become an even bigger issue for the non-revenue teams.

I know Loh sent out the financials last time in support of his decision to cut sports, so let's see the numbers, Wallace.

As a new Baltimore resident, it's embarrassing to watch.

But the conference re-alignment has been bothering me from years. This ADs will do anything to get more tv money which they will just spend on some 10 yr football coach's contract.

Traditionaly rivalries, geographic rivalries or shorter travel for the student-athletes be damned!!!

And these are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.

Where is morality? The sad thing is they are teaching kids - follow the dollar. If you can get $1, then it's justified. Nothing else matters.

Mark my words - eventually it will backfire. The escalating tv fees are resulting in chord cutting. Plus fans aren't going to care about some rivalry with a school 40 states away.

I found this financial situation odd, too, but as an ACC alum from a Carolina school, I don't blame them.

MD has always been an also-ran. No one really cares about them. Even when they won the National Title, it didn't really bother the rival ACC schools like it would have if, say, Wake, UNC or Duke would have won. It was kind of like IU or UCLA winning, to be honest.

Having lived in DC for much of my life, I know lots of great folks from UMD and I know it is a very good school, but they were never really considered an it-school in the ACC and maybe it is time for them to move on...

Well, there is the the fact that on Friday the Under Armor CEO converted about $65 million of his stocks to cash.

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/268908148356681728

Even taking out the 10% for his foundation, that kinda covers the $50 million buyout.

Convenient. So he can fund a buyout for football, but can't cough up a couple hundred grand to save non-revenue sports a la Phil Knight. Although Under Armour produce running items, they are certainly no friend of running. Shallowness by all those in power at UMD, throwing away tradition, loyalty, and student-athletes in non-revenue sports for projected dollar signs. As Rojo implied, this is college, not professional athletics, and treating it only like a corporation for a program like Maryland has never worked.

But the conference re-alignment has been bothering me from years. This ADs will do anything to get more tv money which they will just spend on some 10 yr football coach's contract.[/quote]

I agree with most of your point, but this is not about AD's. This is about College Presidents/Board of Trustees. The AD's are not making these decisions, it goes way over their head.

For all those that support the mass recruitment of foreign athletes you should applaud this move, after all American HS kids suck so bad that most of the scholarship money needs to go to kids overseas. This is just one less school that would have been forced to bring in 2 south africans, 3 kenyans, and few Irishmen.

Actually, Maryland still has a track team (at least for another year, probably in anticipation of a move like this). OP starts with a false premise.

I think the move to the Big Ten will probably give them the revenues so that they will be able to support those non-revenue sports. Don't really know for sure, but I imagine that admission to Big Ten would probably require them to have X amount of non-revenues as well. Anyone know?

malmo wrote:

Actually, Maryland still has a track team (at least for another year, probably in anticipation of a move like this). OP starts with a false premise.

I think the move to the Big Ten will probably give them the revenues so that they will be able to support those non-revenue sports. Don't really know for sure, but I imagine that admission to Big Ten would probably require them to have X amount of non-revenues as well. Anyone know?

I am not sure what you are trying to imply with the first paragraph, but it seems more likely that a conference like the ACC would have much higher standards with regard to non-revenues.

As poorly as they may be regarded in the ACC, they will be nothing more than a stepchild at best in the Big 10. If UM alum think the attendance is bad now, wait until they join the B10. The existing fan base will perish at the blink of an eye.

Floppper wrote:

I found this financial situation odd, too, but as an ACC alum from a Carolina school, I don't blame them.

MD has always been an also-ran. No one really cares about them. Even when they won the National Title, it didn't really bother the rival ACC schools like it would have if, say, Wake, UNC or Duke would have won. It was kind of like IU or UCLA winning, to be honest.

Having lived in DC for much of my life, I know lots of great folks from UMD and I know it is a very good school, but they were never really considered an it-school in the ACC and maybe it is time for them to move on...

Don't be surprised if they cut a few more sports, too.

I'm not implying anything. Maryland was dropping the track team last spring, then was given a reprieve. Although purely speculation on my part, I'm thinking that the reprieve was in anticipation of a move like this.

The logic is simple. Big Ten = more money to share. More money = ability to support more non-revenue sports.

I'm not sure that your explanation that "...ACC would have...higher standards...to non-revenues..." holds water. Explain?

The Big 10 should mandate schools have track program to join the league. I know leagues do mandate certain sports and I recognize that Northwestern doesn't have track yet does have cross. If these teams can be in the big leagues then they should be able to fund the full allotment of sports that all other league teams support.

Utah and Oregon State in the Pac 12 have no excuses either.

riley stops wrote:

Don't be surprised if they cut a few more sports, too.

I read Wallace's statement today and he said that the additional revenue Maryland would get by joining the Big Ten meant they wouldn't need to drop anymore sports. Given that they still have cross country and track I wondered if he meant that they wouldn't need to drop them after all.

Once they get the exit fee squared away, they are going to have a LOT more revenue coming in. As far as the geographical stuff goes, they're about as close geographically to Penn State as they are to UVA and closer to Rutgers than to any other ACC school than to UVA. Ohio State is at a comparable distance from College Park to Clemson or Georgia Tech.

I don't know if joining the Big Ten will save cross country and track there or not but I think there's more likelihood that the sports will survive in the Big Ten than in the ACC.

I don't care if this ends up saving Maryland's track team. I still think all of these moves are embarrassing for places of supposed higher learning.I certainly hope MD has to pay the $50 million exit fee. They said they are going to make $100 million based on projected Big 10 Network fees .Ultimately, there is a reason why everyone's cable bill is $100 per month. Because everyone is paying $5 to watch ESPN per month.The Big Ten network gets about $1.10 per month in markets according to SI's andy staples:http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/andy_staples/11/19/maryland-big-ten-realignment/index.html

Andy Staples wrote:

By adding Maryland, BTN could likely get placement in the expanded basic package by cable systems serving millions of subscribers. The television markets in Washington and Baltimore -- the two that would be considered Maryland's local markets -- contain about 3.4 million television households. If the league can negotiate with cable and satellite providers to get $1 more per subscriber for three million subscribers in the market, that would generate an additional $3 million per month, or $36 million per year.

I mean the math is pretty straight forward.

Most people aren't going to complain about $1 but when you multiply that by 60-70 channels......I mean cable bills just can't keep going up and up.

I don't know why I'm complaining. The Internet is hopefully going to move to a cable model. I always say if I could just get $1 from every visitor per month, I'd be rich.

But this is a business- they are supposedly a school.

Cross country is gone for the guys. UMCP still has a women's team. As Malmo pointed out above, track is still around for the time being, but who really knows what the future will hold. Don't expect xc to come back.

I know major conferences aren't really geographically based anymore, but for me (and a lot of other sports fans) the Big 10 is a midwest conference. The ACC is a mid-Atlantic Conference. Maryland is not in the midwest.

Really, as a cross country fan, it's the principle of the thing. Maryland spent $7.2 million on a new house for its president. It spent $50 million to renovate the football stadium. It will spend $50 million to leave a conference. And yet it couldn't find the $5 million/year to save some non-revenue sports.

Apparently Maryland might be able to re-instate some programs.

That is a lot of difference in revenue and also addresses other concerns especially about tradition.

This move is the best possible thing for the UMD track team. A potential $50 million (may get reduced in court) investment to get a return of $12 million to $19 million per year. Sign me up!

All that extra revenue can be used to make all sports more competitive.

fmr UMD runner wrote:

This move is the best possible thing for the UMD track team. A potential $50 million (may get reduced in court) investment to get a return of $12 million to $19 million per year. Sign me up!

All that extra revenue can be used to make all sports more competitive.

I'd like to be optimistic, but I'll believe those reinstatements when they're announced. I could see the money being funneled to football, basketball, and, because it's UMCP, lacrosse.

One important question: in a changing media market, will cable channels like the Big 10 network be viable in 5-10 years, or will the internet render them obsolete?