The Internet's Tailgate

As a Maryland fan... Leaving the ACC was a major moment for us. We were a charter member and the first National Champion in football there in the first ACC season in 1953 and last one til Clemson did it in 1981. As a fan from 1998 til 2004 it was 9 ACC teams with 3 OOC games against West Virginia and two others yearly. yearly. I always enjoyed the football match ups against Florida State, North Carolina State, Clemson, and Virginia the most in conference play and saw UVA, NC State and Clemson as our main football rivals with Florida State being the biggest game every year. In basketball, it was UVA, NC State, Duke and North Carolina with Duke being the biggest game of the year.

The 2004/05 realignment changed some things for me as a fan. Gone was a full round robin against every school with record and head to head mattering for an at large and in was a conference championship with divisional scheduling and rotational games. It didn't bother me so much early on. Yeah it was weird to play Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech in the beginning and yeah I hated the idea of the conference being tougher but as I grew up i accepted it as it gave us a better chance to get at least a divisional title. Maryland had a shot in November three times: 2006, 2008 and 2010 but lost to Wake in the Divisional Championship in 06 and lost to Florida State in 08 and 10, all at home.

As the next decade began, Marylands prospects got lower with a changing college landscape and the ACC adding more Northeastern schools in Pittsburgh and Syracuse with Notre Dame as another member, while still only catering to the Carolina schools, it became messy. Maryland's rivalry with West Virginia was ended in 2012 with them heading to a 10 team Big XII and playing 9 games out of conference . In football, Syracuse was set to be a new opponent and rumor had it that basketball had Maryland set up with Pittsburgh as a permanent rival and wouldn't play Carolina and Duke on a yearly basis at home as had existed in years past. That was when Maryland bolted and went to the Big Ten.

I remember all the heat we got for it and how much fans hated it but for me, I saw opportunity. Has it been great? Not entirely. Football rivals have shifted from UVA, NC State and Clemson to Penn State, Rutgers and Indiana with competitive games with 2 on yearly basis, and bi yearly against Penn State. Ohio State and Michigan fill the Florida State role but we have been a bit more competitive lately than we were at the end of FSU. Basketball has been meh but Mark Turgeon didn't help that.

But I also enjoy that we are featured more nationally than we were in the ACC. ACC's TV Deal with ESPN and Raycom made for some hard to watch games but did capture the regional feel of College Football. Overall, i do miss the old ACC, even up til 2012. I'm not so sure how much I would be enjoying the ACC these days and think it was the best decision looking back.