Per SportingNews, SEC pursuing Duke/UNC

[gtr2x]

Originally Posted by LeafUF

I dont understand the appeal of UMD. The campus sucks, the alumni suck, the athletics suck. Its just far enough away from Baltimore and DC to be a pain in the butt to go to and they are broke.

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Totally agree and said so in the MD to the Big 10 thread awhile back.

It's pretty difficult to envision VA, UNC or Duke being compatible in the SEC given the alums that Ive known, but you never know. At least they all would upgrade the academic rep (FWIW), upgrade basketball rep and be an easy win in football.

And would be a big upgrade to women's soccer.

[gtj31]

I want OU and UNC personally. Texas would go to the Big 10 and the PAC gets left with also-rans Okie St, Tech, Kansas, and Kansas State (maybe TCU instead of KSU).

[InstiGATOR1]

Originally Posted by LeafUF

I dont understand the appeal of UMD. The campus sucks, the alumni suck, the athletics suck. Its just far enough away from Baltimore and DC to be a pain in the butt to go to and they are broke.

I lived in the DMV area way too long and have come to dislike most things from that area. So this post is full of bias.

The appeal of UMD is to get into the DC media market. Virginia is a bigger state so I guess getting UVa or VaTech is better. The states in play in the moves made the last couple of years are:

2 Texas 25,145,561
10 North Carolina 9,535,483
11 New Jersey 8,791,894
12 Virginia 8,001,024
18 Missouri 5,988,927
19 Maryland 5,773,552
22 Colorado 5,029,196
34 Utah 2,763,885

The SEC got into the 2nd and 18th largest states last year. The Big whatever got into the 11th and 19th states in their recent move. The PAC12 got the 22nd and 34th largest states.

Really we may be headed for a super conference of UF, UCLA, UCal, UTx, 'Cuse, U of IL, PSU, Ohio State, Michigan, UGa, UNC, Rutgers, U of Wash and maybe some others or second teams in big states like Florida and Texas.

[LeafUF]

Originally Posted by InstiGATOR1

The appeal of UMD is to get into the DC media market. Virginia is a bigger state so I guess getting UVa or VaTech is better.

Virginia and Virginia Tech would give you more of the DC market. The DC suburbs on the Virginia side are much more popular with recent college graduates than are the Maryland suburbs or most areas of the city itself. DC is also a town of transplants with very few native Virginians or Marylanders to be found.

If we want that market its better to focus on the schools in VA than the one in MD. Unless the feeling is that you also get Baltimore with that and DC+Baltimore is better than DC+Richmond.