By Will Van Gelder ’16

Many high school students imagining the college life, envision dorm rooms, new friends, and professors in large auditoriums. But for other students, the first image that might come to mind when thinking of college is football on Saturday afternoons. College football is a tremendously popular sport that, in some parts of the country, is watched even more than the NFL.

The affinity for sports that these students feel often translates into giant TV contracts for some independent schools such as Notre Dame, but more often for collegiate sports conferences. The money these contracts rake in often helps to determine major decisions by university leaders about their athletic programs.

Take the University of Maryland, for example.

Sports are deeply ingrained in the culture at Maryland’s College Park campus. The school’s athletics have collected 41 national championship titles, with the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams together combining for 23 of those titles. Given this sports legacy, it was big news when the school officially changed conferences in July of 2014. Maryland ended its 61-year membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to join the much more profitable Big 10, which actually now consists of 14 teams. The Big 10 primarily is known for its powerhouse football programs. Maryland has won one national football championship—in 1953.

Maryland’s choice to leave the ACC baffled many fans and outside observers. But the main reason was actually quite easy to ascertain. Being a member of the Big 10 is very profitable, with 12 of their 14 schools expected to take in $45 million in television revenue in 2017-18, compared to the ACC’s average of $21 million per school. Maryland is also now guaranteed more national TV coverage on networks such as ESPN.

Maryland students and other supporters will have to see if the money and additional TV coverage is worth it. The Maryland football team is currently in the midst of a terrible season, while its basketball team is a pre-season favorite to win a national championship. Yet, basketball fans no longer will get to see another chapter in a Maryland-Duke basketball rivalry that goes back decades. It’s also highly unlikely that Maryland fans will find it easier to travel to Wisconsin as opposed to Virgina to see their Terps play a conference away game.

College sports originally were intended to be for students’ entertainment. With the TV deals that are now being offered, however, collegiate athletics have become a business similar to the NFL or NBA. While the students in College Park may not like it, the people in charge can’t say no to more money.