The Big Ten Conference is expanding, again. The University of Maryland became the 13th member of the conference earlier, today. University of Maryland president William Loh called it a “watershed moment” in announcing they would join the conference in July of 2014.
Maryland had been a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference which was founded in 1953. “By being members of the Big Ten Conference, we will be able to ensure the financial stability of Maryland athletics for decades to come,” Loh said.
Before adding Nebraska in 2010 the league announced it was exploring expansion. There was no such declaration this time. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney says they created more problems and chaos in announcing they were going to take six to 18 months to look at expansion. He says this time they decided to work on expansion behind the scenes.
The addition of Maryland may just be the beginning of the next phase. Rutgers may be announcing this week it is leaving the Big East to join the Big Ten.