Yet another shockwave is being felt in collegiate athletics this week, with the announcement that Maryland and Rutgers are leaving their respective conferences and joining the Big Ten.
The move has many Maryland fans in a tizzy, since the Terrapins were a founding member of the ACC nearly 60 years ago and have long-standing rivalries.
Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise called the decision to leave the ACC “a stunning announcement (that) might also one day be viewed as nothing more than an impulsive cash grab, a move born of fear of pending irrelevance instead of the conviction and strength a University of Maryland’s stature should have.”
Whether it’s an impulsive cash grab or a reasoned fiscal decision, the point is the same: Maryland’s athletic department needs the money.
Maryland cut seven varsity sports this year to try to get athletic department spending under control. The Post reports Maryland will bring in approximately $15 million a year through 2027 from the ACC. The Big Ten is already paying its schools nearly $24 million a year, and the league expects even higher payouts in 2017 when it renegotiates its TV deal.
Meanwhile, the addition of Maryland and Rutgers gives the Big Ten access to large eastern media markets, which translates into more revenue for the league, and thus the member schools.
The explosion in the popularity of college football has become the golden goose. It delivers tens of millions of dollars to athletic departments, but those departments are increasingly expensive to operate. Athletic department arms races require programs to constantly upgrade facilities and pay large salaries to coaches, while Title IX has increased spending on non-revenue women’s sports.
In one sense, the schools have done this to themselves. Colleges and universities want big time sports programs that expand the fan base, draw students and provide a marketable product for television. But those same schools must also spend lavishly to remain at a level where they are attractive to television and increasingly fickle fans.
The distinction between college and professional athletes is supposed to be that the former is an amateur. The remuneration for the college player is that, in most cases, the student gets a scholarship or some financial assistance.
But that distinction is now blurred by the marketing of college athletics—primarily large school football and basketball games—as products. These games are valuable real-time entertainment events.
And so it’s hardly surprising that Maryland would abandon heritage for the high bidder. Rivalries and traditions are benchwarmers. Television events have moved into the starting line-up.
We should at least be honest about what we’re dealing with. Then all that’s left is to negotiate the price.