Originally posted by The Dude#:
Originally posted by HuffyJB:
Which Big Ten team will eventually fill that void? There doesn't seem to be a natural candidate who fits or could fit the criteria (consistently good so a win is meaningful, relative geography, intense past games as reference points, etc.). It will probably take awhile to get an opponent to that level so receive the full "Maryland treatment."
Penn State without question, but they aren't good enough at basketball for it to take off.
It's certainly not going to happen in Basketball b/c PSU has a historically aweful basketball program -- aside from one fluky Sweet 16 run in 2000, basically no real NCAA tournament success since the 50s.
Conversely, though, once PSU football works its way through the after-effects of NCAA sanctions, I'm not sure there will be a much of a football rivalry there either -- as I just don't think Maryland football will ever get to the point where it can recruit enough talent to consistently compete with a PSU-like program (there's a reason why Maryland is like 4-37 or something crazy like that against PSU all-time).
If you were to ask me, Maryland's best chance for a basketball rival is Ohio State IMO -- a good program that is geographically pretty close. The problem, though, is that like in the ACC, Maryland's in a situation where it can, at best, only be OSU's second biggest rival -- and, in this case, it will be in a sport that OSU doesn't care nearly as much about.
I'm pretty familiar with the PSU football program. And, even after about 20 years, they still really don't have a true rival in the conference. OSU is the closest thing to a rival -- as they've played a lot of tough games over the past couple decades -- but that obviously can never compete with OSU-Michigan. The big 10 tried to create a rivalry between PSU-MSU, but that never took off b/c, for most of the time, MSU wasn't good enough to make PSU care about that game. I think Maryland will find itself in the same position --- i.e., in a world where they don't have an real rivals.
On balance -- it may be a good thing -- but I don't think there will ever be another program that inspires the type of vitriol and animosity at Maryland that Duke generated for a couple decades.
This post was edited on 2/25 2:01 PM by aah555