Maryland, Rutgers enter Big Ten’s new era

IOWA CITY - Big Ten newcomers Maryland and Rutgers barely share a football history, but the schools will forever be bonded through Big Ten expansion.

They join the Big Ten officially July 1 and start their football campaigns this fall. Neither receives a soft welcome in the tradition-rich East Division. Their two crossover games include the three West Division teams that earned New Year's Day bowl appearances last year - Maryland with Wisconsin and Iowa; Rutgers with Nebraska and Wisconsin.

But the daunting schedule and fresh starts have energized the programs. Both qualified for a bowl game last year, and both coaches are confident they can contend in the Big Ten this fall.

'We fully expect to be able to compete as we come in to the Big Ten this year, and we're really looking forward to it,” Maryland Coach Randy Edsall said. 'We know it's an outstanding conference. We're proud and excited to be part of it. We know we just have to continue to work very, very hard in terms of being the best we can. We have all intents and purposes of coming in and competing.”

Maryland was a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and its fans initially rebelled when the school announced its Big Ten plans in November 2012. Rivalries with Virginia, Duke and North Carolina were embedded into the athletics culture. But fans slowly have accepted the move.

'I think the response has really grown and really developed since the first announcement,” Edsall said. 'Anytime there's change, I think there's always a little bit of apprehension.”

Rutgers remained independent until 1991 when it joined the Big East. That football league continuously shifted its membership until folding last year and morphing into the American Athletic Conference. New Jersey-based Rutgers, which has little history and no real rivalries, was only too happy to move to a power league.

'I think the name association with the Big Ten brand can only enhance what your product is,” Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood said. 'For us at Rutgers, to be able to walk into a high school and walk into a home as a member of the Big Ten Conference - the elite athletic-academic conference in all of college athletics - there's no doubt it's a positive in every way.”

The transition will be difficult off the field. According to documents acquired by The Gazette through open-records requests, Maryland's football ticket revenue of $4.4 million in fiscal 2013 was lowest of any Big Ten public school. Rutgers' ticket revenue of $6.9 million was ahead of only Maryland and Indiana. Seven Big Ten schools had ticket revenue exceeding $19 million, and four posted more than $28 million.

Neither Maryland nor Rutgers produced more than $20 million in football-related revenue, lower than all other Big Ten public schools. Iowa football generated more than $55.8 million, and Michigan earned nearly $81.5 million.

On the field, the transition has its challenges, too. Both schools play six bowl teams in conference action along with bowl-ineligible Penn State. The schools are excited to reignite their series against the border-state Nittany Lions, although Maryland and Rutgers are a combined 3-57-1 against Penn State. Neither school has played Penn State since 1995.

'There's no question that that's what we'd like to do,” Edsall said. 'We have not had a whole lot of success against Penn State here but, again, I think it's something that's a natural thing and what we've got to do is we've got to beat them on the field to be able to make that a rivalry. But proximity and history of the teams playing, the stage is set for that to happen. Now we've got to go and do our part.”

'College football is at its best when it's regional,” Flood said. 'I think to have a team in our conference in Pennsylvania, a team in our conference in Maryland, I think naturally those types of rivalries will develop. The last piece of that puzzle is the games. I think the more competitive the games are, the more that rivalry will build.”

That goes for games against Penn State - and the rest of the Big Ten.

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