Tasser’s Take: Maryland’s move to Big Ten is deplorable

Shame on the University of Maryland.

Maryland announced last week that it will leave the Atlantic Coast Conference, of which it is a founding member, to join the Big Ten beginning in 2014. To go through with this move, UMD will be forced to pay the conference a $50 million exit fee.

That’s right, $50 million. And to think, this summer the university announced that due to a “budget crisis,” the athletic department planned to cut eight varsity sports: men’s and women’s swimming, men’s tennis, men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s cross-country, women’s water polo, aerobics and tumbling. Unless the eight sports could raise enough money — eight years’ worth of revenue totaling $29 million, according to a Washington Post article — they would be eliminated, leaving their 131 athletes without teams.

Only the men’s outdoor track team survived after raising $888,000. However, according to the same Washington Post article, it still needs to raise $1.88 million by Dec. 31 to remain competitive for the 2013-2014 season. The track team, it should be noted, is coached by Andrew Valmon, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was head coach for the United States track team at the 2012 London Olympics. Not even having such a high-profile figure attached to the program kept it from the chopping block.

After undertaking a massive expansion to their football facility, Byrd Stadium, to the tune of $50.8 million in 2006 (resulting in a $35 million debt), the higher-ups in the athletic department made the decision in 2010 to buy out the remainder of then-head football coach Ralph Friedgen’s contract for $2 million. Exactly half of what the athletic department will lose this year could have been covered, had they not fired their football coach: all of it for years to come could have been covered, had they not expanded their football stadium.

Oh, and did I mention that since the expansion, Terrapin football attendance has fallen every year? And their average basketball attendance went down by more than 1,700 people last season, the worst drop in the ACC last year.

As a student-athlete in a non-revenue sport, I am appalled that the NCAA would allow a school whose revenue sports — i.e. football and basketball — are responsible for the debt to cut athletic programs and then splurge to leave the conference with which they’re affiliated.

True, the money Maryland will make in the Big Ten dwarfs what it will make in the ACC — estimates are $43 million, compared to $24 million, according to Sports Illustrated. But where is the money from the exit fee coming from? This is not a popular move among donors and alumni; Maryland is in the heart of ACC country, has been a member since 1952 and has well-established rivalries in the conference. If the athletic department is in such a dire situation, projecting $17 million in losses by 2017, where are they going to come up with $50 million?

The NCAA, by allowing conference realignment to happen, only reinforces the view that it only cares about money. Screw the little guy. Nobody watches swimming, tennis or cross-country on TV, so why should it matter if they get the ax when the highest-visibility programs are happy?

A majority of college athletic programs lose money; only 22 of 227 Division I programs made money this past year. Guess which sports lose the most money? Anybody who has ever seen Heinz Field only half-filled on a Saturday afternoon can make the connection.

Maryland, in the end, will make much more money in the Big Ten. Who could blame them for jumping at the chance to nearly double their athletics revenue? But will that money be used to reinstate the smaller programs that are cut? Forget about it. It will only serve to fatten wallets.

Write Donnie at dft6@pitt.edu.