Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post - News of Maryland’s move to the Big Ten traveled quickly on campus — from the rumors off news reports Friday night to the official announcement on Monday.
As University of Maryland students and fans celebrated the basketball team’s victory on Friday night, rumors began to swirl on Twitter that the university might soon join the Big Ten Conference. By Monday morning, the move was official — and students tried to sort through what the sudden news meant for them.
“It was just a rumor and then — bam! — the next business day, it’s done,” said Abby Bjork, 20, a junior English major from Towson. “It was just a really sudden announcement.”
More Maryland coverage
The ACC votes to replace Maryland with Louisville, further damaging the Big East.
Conference asks court to force school to adhere to league’s rules, pay more than $52 million to leave for Big Ten.
Dez Wells and Alex Len combine for 36 points as U-Md. cruises in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Loh says there were two months of discussions before the decision to leave the ACC was made.
After tearing the ACL in her right knee in high school, Maryland sophomore point guard Brene Moseley is out for the year following ACL surgery on her left knee.
COUCH SLOUCH | The Big Ten decision was made in secret without any public discussion.
University System of Maryland regents met twice in secret to decide if it would endorse the move to the Big Ten Conference, huddles that experts say appear to have violated the state’s open-meetings law.
Maryland is joining the Big Ten and ending nearly six decades in the ACC to shore up its athletic finances.
There are a few things that students already know for sure: Starting in 2014, the Terps will no longer regularly play their favorite basketball rival, Duke, a matchup that once inspired students to riot on Route 1. They will have to learn a new slate of teams, along with their reputations, mascots and colors. And they will have to drive farther to attend away games.
Then there are the things that have been promised to them: More football games will be nationally televised, and the higher-profile conference could attract more fans to the university’s currently poorly attended games. Being in the Big Ten also likely will lead to new academic partnerships. And the deal could bring more money to the school’s struggling athletic department, which Maryland officials hope will allow them to reinstate some of the seven sports they cut earlier this year and better support other programs.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re in survival mode trying to maintain a certain level of success where it felt like a full-time fundraiser at times, and it starts to wear you out,” said Sasho Cirovski, the men’s soccer coach who has been at the university for two decades. “Now with additional resources, we can hopefully increase the quality of the student-athlete experience and provide much-needed help in areas.”
But there are a lot of unknowns about bidding farewell to the Atlantic Coast Conference, a league that Maryland helped charter in 1953, a partnership that existed for three times longer than most of the school’s current students have been alive.
The result: Lots of confusion and frustration.
“My parents went here and now I go here, and it has always been the ACC,” said Erin Rhode, 21, a senior civil engineering major who was wearing a Ravens jersey. “All of those rivals that we have had and those teams we have played are gone. And now we are going to play a bunch of teams in the Midwest.”
And then Rhode posed this tough question: “Why are we going to leave the ACC, where we can barely beat anyone, and go to the Big Ten, where the teams are even better?”
Throughout the weekend and on Monday, Facebook and Twitter feeds filled with angry rants — along with some jabs at the Midwesterness of the Big Ten.
“No one is going to want to come see the University of Minnesota play,” said Ryan Largent, 21, a senior government and politics major who is in the marching band.
But a lot of students, while lamenting changing a tradition, concluded that maybe it won’t be so bad. The student government’s top leaders released a letter early Monday morning supporting the university’s application for the Big Ten.
Loading...
Comments