PublicPolicyPolling
‏@ppppolls

By 40/35 spread Terps fans say they wish they were still in the ACC. 48/30 for ACC w/Dems, 51/22 for Big Ten w/GOP:

Probably because Dems in Maryland tend to be more concentrated near DC which is close to Virginia and has a lot of ACC alums from other schools whereas people further out near Pennsylvania and West Virginia tend to be Republicans and may be less connected to the ACC. Just a guess.

Unfortunately, fans aren't the ones who have to pay the bills.

Ultimately, they do...

It depends on who you ask. The older alumni most likely would want the Terps competing in the ACC. The younger alumni, however, probably believe that Maryland's membership in CIC somehow enhances their job prospects. I belong to the former group. And I know many older alumni and fans that miss the ACC and blame Swofford (and not Maryland's financial situation) for Maryland's departure. The negative comments cited include the Conference's refusal to have the tournament in DC on a regular basis, braking up Maryland's basketball rivalry with Duke and Carolina, adding Big East schools and giving preferential treatment to Notre Dame. And let's not forget biased refereeing, usually favoring Duke and Carolina. Finally, with respect to football, there was a feeling that there was no interest among alumni and fans in attending home games against the smaller ACC schools. It was bad enough that the OOC games, other than West Virginia, generated little interest.

Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

The athletic department got caught in a short term cash squeeze. Maryland could've easily rectified the situation by allowing donors contributing to its Great Expectations Fundraising Campaign to direct their cash gifts, either in whole or in part, to the athletic department. But I think the financial crisis gave school officials the cover they needed to move Maryland to BIG.

(04-22-2016 07:34 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

This post is on point and pretty much summarizes the state of affairs at Maryland during the time frame.

I don't miss Maryland 1 bit. In fact, I'm glad they left! Thanks Terps!

(04-23-2016 08:53 AM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  I don't miss Maryland 1 bit. In fact, I'm glad they left! Thanks Terps!

You think?

Maryland and PSU would be good 15 and 16 for ACC.

(04-22-2016 07:34 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

Aside from the fact that some of your "facts" are way off, the sum of your weak explanation is that Maryland left because they couldn't get their way, so they join a conference that they have virtually no history with. Terps fans were just dying to get that game with Indiana, and let's not forget the periodic trips to Iowa and Minnesota that every Terps fan can't wait for. Sounds logical, far less logical that the well established fact that Maryland's AD was in a financial shambles after much mismanagement so Maryland jumped for the promised cash.

No school is going to give up history, even if they have made changes that are not fully in their favor, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. B1G money, as promised, was the motivator, the rest is just excuses.

I have no problem with their decision, they did what they thought to be best for the school. I only ask that they not try to sell a line of crap like that to cover their posteriors.

Terps fans are smart.
The acc is for losers.

i doubt your average UMD fan cares what conference they play in as long as it has some major programs.

(04-23-2016 09:51 PM)HtownOrange Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 07:34 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:54 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Yucky...adding those terrible Big East schools...you know the teams that actually made Maryland less a geographic outlier and giving it better access to better recruiting.

The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

Aside from the fact that some of your "facts" are way off, the sum of your weak explanation is that Maryland left because they couldn't get their way, so they join a conference that they have virtually no history with. Terps fans were just dying to get that game with Indiana, and let's not forget the periodic trips to Iowa and Minnesota that every Terps fan can't wait for. Sounds logical, far less logical that the well established fact that Maryland's AD was in a financial shambles after much mismanagement so Maryland jumped for the promised cash.

No school is going to give up history, even if they have made changes that are not fully in their favor, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. B1G money, as promised, was the motivator, the rest is just excuses.

I have no problem with their decision, they did what they thought to be best for the school. I only ask that they not try to sell a line of crap like that to cover their posteriors.

I don't think LP4 is off base with his comments. He knows his ACC history and is connected to NCSU. I wouldn't be surprised if he's met Debbie Yow, the former Maryland AD.

Anyway, the tail doesn’t wag the dog, at least not at Maryland. Maryland has always had ambitions of becoming an elite academic institution. The administrators believe joining BIG/CIC will give Maryland the prestige and research dollars it believes will propel it to recognition as a top 25 research institution. It's the most cited justification for joining BIG.

In furtherance of that goal, Maryland finally got what it wanted for decades – the approval of the merger between it and University of Maryland Baltimore, where the professional schools (medical, nursing, dental, pharmacy, social work, and law) are located. It’s all about academic prestige, research and the increased grant funding/economic development that will result from the merger. Athletics is just a sideshow and the money it generates is chump change.

(04-24-2016 03:41 AM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-23-2016 09:51 PM)HtownOrange Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 07:34 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

Aside from the fact that some of your "facts" are way off, the sum of your weak explanation is that Maryland left because they couldn't get their way, so they join a conference that they have virtually no history with. Terps fans were just dying to get that game with Indiana, and let's not forget the periodic trips to Iowa and Minnesota that every Terps fan can't wait for. Sounds logical, far less logical that the well established fact that Maryland's AD was in a financial shambles after much mismanagement so Maryland jumped for the promised cash.

No school is going to give up history, even if they have made changes that are not fully in their favor, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. B1G money, as promised, was the motivator, the rest is just excuses.

I have no problem with their decision, they did what they thought to be best for the school. I only ask that they not try to sell a line of crap like that to cover their posteriors.

I don't think LP4 is off base with his comments. He knows his ACC history and is connected to NCSU. I wouldn't be surprised if he's met Debbie Yow, the former Maryland AD.

Anyway, the tail doesn’t wag the dog, at least not at Maryland. Maryland has always had ambitions of becoming an elite academic institution. The administrators believe joining BIG/CIC will give Maryland the prestige and research dollars it believes will propel it to recognition as a top 25 research institution. It's the most cited justification for joining BIG.

In furtherance of that goal, Maryland finally got what it wanted for decades – the approval of the merger between it and University of Maryland Baltimore, where the professional schools (medical, nursing, dental, pharmacy, social work, and law) are located. It’s all about academic prestige, research and the increased grant funding/economic development that will result from the merger. Athletics is just a sideshow and the money it generates is chump change.

Htown, just how do you know so much about MD? I'm curious.

Most of my knowledge about Maryland's situations come from a very reliable source, MD's old athletic director in the late 50's and 60's Bill Cobey. Some of you old enough might recall he had a son, also named Bill Cobey who was AD at UNC and since I've sat in his seats during the ACC tourney I was more than willing to listen to him.

I don't have to get my info about MD from DY, nor would I press her on such as that's an untenable conflict. Htown, what you don't get is that the ACC is, or at least was, an extended, intertwined family. If you are unwilling to read about Kirwan's stated opinions and goals regarding Ohio State, the B10, and MD, that's your business, but it's there for all to see. Maryland blew up in 1986, and has not recovered. Kirwan milked that for a quarter century.

It took the creation of an artificial crisis to move MD, but think what you want, after all, you must know more than NJ2MD and I.

NJ2MD, you are quite correct about the grad programs in Baltimore, and not only for the research component, but the long term alumni donation and endowment angle.

Htown - The politics of higher education in the State's of MD, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia are highly politicized but unlike Texas, the battle is usually kept under the radar. Texas is not the only state where the State Legislature is forever involved picking winners and losers and it's not a partisan fight, but a regional or an urban/rural fight in most cases.

Ask an East Carolina fan about the university political situation in NC, or a JMU or W&B, or ODU fan in Va. Ask a GT booster what they think of the new College of Engineering at UGa if you want to toss a turd in the punch bowl. The degree of autonomy that northern state supported universities have as compare to southern universities is night and day and the reason for that is simple - economics. In the south these types of institutions came later in large numbers and controlling the university was a way to keep you hand on the levers of power.

(04-24-2016 03:41 AM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(04-23-2016 09:51 PM)HtownOrange Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 07:34 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 06:41 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(04-22-2016 03:59 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  The irony is the less of a geographic outlier Maryland became, the more of an outsider it felt in a conference that it helped to establish.

Felt like an outsider or saw their athletic programs mismanaged to the point that they were forced into taking a desperate measure?

Maryland was where they wanted to be in the ACC and the Southern Conference. They liked being the northernmost school in both conferences and it conferred advantages upon them. Other than GT and Tulane, MD was the only school in or near a major American city in the 1923 SoCon and became the only one after the 13 SEC schools left in 1933.

The athletic department was not mismanaged. What happened was that President Kirwan gutted the basketball program in 1986 when Len Bias died. He then refused to publicly support Bobby Ross. As a result both programs went into the tank. The College Park area became run down as new venues and competition for athletic dollars popped up in Baltimore and DC, all the while there was no political support for cutting any athletic programs. After Kirwan went to Ohio State and fell in love with the Big 10, he then came back the MD as System President with taking MD to the Big 10 as one of his goals. Kirwan had created most of the problem he later claimed would be fixed by moving to the Big 10.

More specifically, Gary Williams cut back on recruiting after his national championship year. In addition to that, he refused to deal with the AAU slimeballs which while admirable, resulted in MD losing basketball players they used to get. Apathy surrounding MD football became an issue after Ross left and has not gotten better. Some of it is changing demographics and tastes of MD alumni, some of it is rooted in feelings that went all the way back to Jim Tatum in the 1950's. It was convenient to attempt to pin MD's problems on Debbie Yow. But as NJ2MD noted, MD had grown to hate UNC and Duke and seeing UNC take over the conference chapped their ass.

It's not always been UNC's conference. MD was instrumental in forming the SoCon in the 1920's. MD and Duke were instrumental in forming the ACC out of the SoCon in 1953. It was not until after Bob James was no longer ACC commissioner that MD began to be isolated from the inner workings of things. The ACC became Carolina's and Duke's conference after Jim Valvano's throat was cut at NC State, and State demphasized both sports in a move that Maryland would partially replicated after Bias died.

Regarding expansion, no MD got nothing out of adding BC or Syracuse to the conference per se and their placement in the Atlantic put them up against the one Florida team that they didn't have a history with and cut them out of football games with UNC and VT who have large alumni contingents int eh greater DC area. No one at NC State gets any particular thrill about a football game with BC or Syracuse, especially if it means a game at the concrete floor of the Carrier Dome when it's still warm in upstate NY. A football game with WF is just something to dread.

Few revelations have been as outputting as the reveal a number of years ago that ACC basketball officials learned to officiate based on a schools supposed "tendencies" so that the officiating would be purposely biased from the opening whistle allowing UNC to beat you to death with lower body, and Duke to flop all over Hell and creation with no call. The suspicion that things are different for one are one thing, the knowledge that things are different is all together too much and speaking of irony, the genesis was the demise of the NC State basketball program which caused league officials to protect Duke and Carolina basketball at all cost.

Aside from the fact that some of your "facts" are way off, the sum of your weak explanation is that Maryland left because they couldn't get their way, so they join a conference that they have virtually no history with. Terps fans were just dying to get that game with Indiana, and let's not forget the periodic trips to Iowa and Minnesota that every Terps fan can't wait for. Sounds logical, far less logical that the well established fact that Maryland's AD was in a financial shambles after much mismanagement so Maryland jumped for the promised cash.

No school is going to give up history, even if they have made changes that are not fully in their favor, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. B1G money, as promised, was the motivator, the rest is just excuses.

I have no problem with their decision, they did what they thought to be best for the school. I only ask that they not try to sell a line of crap like that to cover their posteriors.

I don't think LP4 is off base with his comments. He knows his ACC history and is connected to NCSU. I wouldn't be surprised if he's met Debbie Yow, the former Maryland AD.

Anyway, the tail doesn’t wag the dog, at least not at Maryland. Maryland has always had ambitions of becoming an elite academic institution. The administrators believe joining BIG/CIC will give Maryland the prestige and research dollars it believes will propel it to recognition as a top 25 research institution. It's the most cited justification for joining BIG.

In furtherance of that goal, Maryland finally got what it wanted for decades – the approval of the merger between it and University of Maryland Baltimore, where the professional schools (medical, nursing, dental, pharmacy, social work, and law) are located. It’s all about academic prestige, research and the increased grant funding/economic development that will result from the merger. Athletics is just a sideshow and the money it generates is chump change.

What stopped Maryland from being academically elite prior to leaving the ACC? It seems there are a few models Maryland could have followed. Further, why could Maryland not work with the professional schools before? Could they not have teamed up on joint grants, projects and ventures? Serious question, since you indicate they can only do so now.