Old School vs. New School in a battle with no clear winner

Is going to the Big 10 the right decision? It really depends on your definition of the word “right”. With Maryland’s announcement to leave the ACC and move to the Big 10, fans of all ages have come out of the wood work to give their opinion of whether or not the move is good, correct, positive or insert-judging-word-here.

But the problem with answering such a question lies in your beliefs as a sports fan in the year 2012. If you value the “old school” way of athletics, leaving a conference you were a founding member of, and one you have shared many historic events, rivalries and traditions with other teams, then moving out of the ACC is unquestionably horrific. Any chance of rekindling a Maryland-Duke rivalry is most likely out the window, and adjusting to a conference with teams more than halfway across the country is simply not what college athletics should be about.

If you are a proponent of the ever-present “sports is a business” then you most likely see the move as savvy financial positioning for the long-term. The Maryland athletic department is clearly in a mountain of debt, having cut seven sports teams, and is struggling to fill Byrd Stadium and Comcast Center on a given day. The guaranteed revenue of the Big 10 is too attractive for Maryland to turn down, and optimistically will help the program gain financial stability and eventually lead to improvements on the field.

Instead of luring prospects to the team, the team is moving to the prospects, in a way. Aside from direct monetary gain, Maryland is also moving to the Big 10 as a means to draw high school football players to a maligned team that will face legendary foes such as Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska (and Wisconsin and Penn State and…). Often times playing on a bigger stage is enough to draw athletes to your program, and there are few football conferences with more allure than the Big 10. Basketball, meanwhile, will try to compete for conference titles in a much different landscape from the Atlantic Coast. Recently, however, teams such as Michigan State, Wisconsin and Indiana have put Big 10 basketball on the map as prominently as the football teams.

Whatever your opinion, what is easy to recognize is the widespread change the Maryland athletic department has undergone in the past three or four years. The Terps sport relatively new football and basketball coaches, a recently hired athletic director, a new apparel sponsorship with more influence than anyone anticipated and now a new conference. While no one should expect immediate results from any of these entities, it is at the very least exciting just to be in the midst of such watershed times at the University.