(01-07-2018 09:39 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 08:38 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  It’s worked out well for Maryland

In some ways, but for Maryland hoops fans - and as the article notes, in terms of passion Maryland is a basketball school and always will be - the B1G will never be the same as playing Virginia and the Carolina schools. Those were 60+ year hoops rivalries that were lost. They face the same problem Nebraska faces on the other end - losing all those generations-old Big 8 rivalries in football to get that B1G money.

The thing about never is that it's a long time. For fans of a certain age, the depth of passion won't ever return, but Maryland isn't hurting for fan support in men's hoops.

The reality about the rivalries is that they slowly died starting back in 2004. What made the ACC special was that you would play everyone twice and then (if you were one of the five non-Carolina schools) go into hostile territory to fight it out again in the tournament. But once home games against Boston College and Miami replaced ones against NC State and North Carolina, things were never going to be the same. Then when the ACC decided that Maryland would play Pitt instead of Duke every year, well, the writing was on the wall.

Hopefully cooler heads prevail eventually and some of those rivalries come back as non-conference showcases, but if not, Maryland will be fine building new rivalries against like-minded institutions. It'll take a while since the Big Ten has even more history, but it'll happen.