Say what you want about Md, their financial issues are deserving of criticism. But the ACC lost a member who has quietly been in second place, all time, ncaa titles amongst current ACC schools - UNC is first. They are dominant in lesser sports like field hockey, women's lax & they remain a premier brand in men's lax and men's soccer. They also have one of the stronger women's and men's basketball programs of the ACC - they are in fact the only school outside of NoCar to win a NC in men's basketball - sorry Lville's titles are all outside ACC membership. Lastly, Md has pretty decent hs football and excellent hs basketball, which leads me to my next point:
- What doesn't yield enough attention for those slighting the BIG's recent expansion is the following: Jersey and Md are the best recruiting grounds for basketball and football recruits - Mid Atlantic (north of Va) to Maine. PSU, for example, has long depended on these states for their football prestige.
To top it off, Md is one of the best academic institutions in the ACC once people get past the utterly overstated emphasis on undergraduate schools. Md has more than 20 top 20 GRADUATE programs, whether you look at US News or NRC measurements. They also have the leisure of selecting hs students from one of the top k-12 states in the country.
Also, since I actually like the ACC, albeit I'm more of a BIG fan, as a cf fan, I just can't imagine the ACC penetrating the southeast like the SEC. FSU and Miami's glory days seem ancient, though in the grand scheme of cfb history much of their success is recent. The SEC is just that damn good when it comes to football & the cultures they've created, the fandom has grown especially during this phenomenal streak of 7 consecutive BCS titles. Look at SC, the Gamecocks are now the legit team in that state and Clemson has a pretty good football history - same goes for GTech vs UGa. There's only so much room in the Southeast and the ACC truly appears to be on the outside looking in.
As for Lville, at the end of the day they have only won NC's in men's basketball & they are distant second in the state of Ky in terms of fans and compassion. You cite their recent Director's Cup rankings, which is decent, but Md has cracked the top 40 at least 10x since this system's inception - top 25 at least twice.
But hey now, I like Lville and where they are going - really fun city to visit , a crossroads type place, midwestern and southern, and in my opinion the Ohio River Valley is the best hs basketball region in the country.
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They have a $95 million athletic department that has shown itself to be successful and self sufficient. It is top 40 in the Director's cup. They have recently upgraded most of their athletic facilities. Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech once were their conference mates in the Metro Conference, and they supported their inclusion. They pleased both the basketball oriented schools and the football oriented schools in the league. Notre Dame wanted another midwestern team in the league, and apparently have developed somewhat of a basketball rivalry with Louisville. The ACC saw academic improvement at Louisville even though they need to work on that more.
We were losing a $60 million athletic department that is financially unable to fund its department without losing money. The stuff above was attractive in comparison.