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Maryland Moving To Big 10

The Maryland Terrapins and Rutgers, will be leaving their respective conferences and join the Big Ten conference during the 2014 calendar year. It is a bit surprising, considering that the Terrapins were one of the founding members of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. Meanwhile, the double move by the Big Ten expands the conference into two major Eastern markets, New York and Washington, and gives Penn State - approved to join the conference in 1991 as the lone Eastern outpost - two natural rivals in the "Leaders Division" . Of course, the word "rival" is a relative term. In football, the Nittany Lions are 35-1-1 against Maryland and 22-2 versus Rutgers. The Lions haven't played the Terrapins since 1993. They last played the Scarlet Knights in 1995 and are scheduled to play at Rutgers in 2014. In fact, the Big 10 all time versus Md is 4-44-1.

There is a major impact on the Terps with this move . University of Maryland president Wallace D. Loh said, "The long-term viability of Maryland athletics," which recently has had to drop seven programs, due to budget concerns .

WATCH VIDEO: University of Maryland President Wallace Loh

There 's also an uproar among the Terrapins alumni who do not want the university to move out of the ACC, and left them questioning how the school will pay a $50 million exit fee recently adopted by the ACC. Loh did indicate the fee was subject to discussion/negotiation . He said, "As we crunched those numbers, we are able to deal with that issue, so far as the exact amount, it is something we will discuss in private with the ACC." There will be discussions between their team and our team." It seems to be a "no brainier" to go, but Maryland basketball will never be the same with Duke and North Carolina out of the picture.

Follow Jerry Coleman: @sportswcoleman

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