Maryland and Rutgers Possibly Joining the Big Ten Conference

By marcvilas
Jeremy Brevard-US Presswire

Once upon a time the teams within conferences made sense and the conference names represented their member schools. That was the good old days. Now Boise State is going to be in the Big East? That’s weird, pretty sure they are closer to the west coast.

The Big Ten has how many teams?  No one really knows the answer to that, but what ever number you guess will possibly need an addition of two soon.  Maryland and Rutgers are looking to join the conference, usually made up of mid-west schools.

If Maryland goes from the ACC to the Big 10, Rutgers, of the Big East, is expected to follow suit because of their proximity. The addition of Maryland and Rutgers would give the Big Ten 14 members as the league gears toward negotiations on a new media rights deal in 2017. No date has been set for a potential announcement, though it could come as soon as Monday. The Maryland board of regents will meet at 9 a.m. Monday morning to decide on the move, a source with direct knowledge told ESPN.com Sunday morning. Apparently the Big Ten can justify Maryland and then possibly Rutgers since they are all “contiguous states to the Big 10 footprint”.

The ACC recently raised its exit fee to $50 million. The buyout to leave the Big East is $10 million if the school provides 27 months’ notice. However, the league has allowed West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse to leave the league without honoring the 27-month requirement by paying a higher exit fee. A down economy and schools are willing to pay millions of dollars to change leagues?  Oh wait, the existence of these conferences doesn’t make sense anymore either.

 

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