The Board Of Regents at the University of Maryland announced today that they will leave the ACC and join the Big Ten. Maryland who has eliminated six varsity sports recently is strapped for cash and the head of the Regents flatly said the Big Ten is offering money to get Maryland back on their feet. Fannies in the seat is the biggest issue and the last three football seasons Maryland has only had home attendance in any home game of two thirds of the stadium full.
Maryland becomes the second member of the original eight members that defected from the Southern Conference in 1953 as South Carolina left in 1971. So for the first time in the John Swofford era as Commissioner of the ACC someone has out foxed him in the wheeling and dealings of conference expansion. It comes from another Carolina school mate in Jim Delaney.
So all of a sudden with Notre Dame looking possibly at the BCS championship game and a big payday who is going to fill the shoes to get the ACC back to 14 or even 16 teams? Louisville, Connecticut, Vanderbilt are the top candidate. Here is next problem, can the ACC survive or will they find themselves becoming the Big East.
Rumors on blogs are stating that Carolina and Duke will wind up in the the Big Ten and State and Clemson going to Big 12 and Florida State to Southeastern. What has happened to College sports? The ACC has been betting that Notre Dame will need them to join full time in football and with a full time Notre Dame the ACC would add the Chicago TV market. You can kiss a full fledged football member if the Irish win at Southern Cal Saturday and Matt Barkley the Trojan QB is out of the game with an injury.
John Swofford who up to this point in all of these dominoes falling in college sports he has been Fast Eddie Felson or the Paul Newman character in the movie The Hustler. Maryland leaving this week and if the Fighting Irish win in football this weekend then this week will be the week Swofford meets up with Minnesota Fats.
If all the rumors are true and if ESPN continues to be the money packing machine that they seem to be then we may be headed for four super conferences in football then what we know today as the ACC could still be a basketball league along with all the minor sports while football with be a monster all it's own. What is this world coming to?
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