Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson looks desperate.
The Terrapins soon will cut eight of their 27 teams to offset a growing annual budget deficit of $2.8 million that will quintuple by 2016. The big money-maker — men’s basketball — has seen attendance drop one-third from five years ago.
Football has bottomed out under coach Randy Edsall, whose 2-10 debut last fall before mostly empty seats probably will be repeated in the fall. That stain of hiring Edsall is on Anderson.
Anderson is playing one of his final cards, and it’s not a good one. Maryland no longer will play Georgetown in any sport unless the Hoyas agree to meet the Terps in men’s basketball.
Maryland’s problem — nobody cares whether the nonrevenue sports teams meet.
This isn’t like strangling Iran into nuclear capitulation through crippling economic sanctions. This is saying there won’t be any more games between the schools in women’s basketball, soccer and lacrosse among others. While those are nice rivalries and cheap trips, it’s not going to force peace talks between Washington’s two college basketball superpowers.
Anderson needs the money but is gambling with an empty hand. Georgetown doesn’t need the basketball rivalry. It’s a perennially ranked program — something Maryland once was.
Anderson can’t stare down Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed by removing a few nonrevenue sports teams from the schedule. There will be no #OccupyGeorgetown by fans to see these games return. Football isn’t even a factor — Georgetown hasn’t met Maryland since 1941.
The standoff dates to the last scheduled meeting in 1993, when Maryland stunned Georgetown 84-83 in overtime at USAir Arena, the Hoyas’ homecourt. Then coach John Thompson Jr. was no longer willing to risk local recruiting by losing to Maryland, so he ducked the rivalry. Local players started choosing the Hoyas over the Terps in the late 1980s, and Thompson wasn’t losing that edge.
Then Maryland coach Gary Williams fairly said Georgetown needed to return the favor and play in College Park. It quickly became a logjam that prevented the resumption of the series, but neither coach really wanted to play the other anyway. Too much local prestige was at stake. They could avoid each other, and they often did.
No matter: Fans loved the rivalry. When Maryland won the 2001 NCAA tournament Sweet 16 meeting 76-66, it was worth the eight-year drought to Terps fans. After Georgetown took the 2008 Old Spice Classic contest 75-48, Hoyas fans felt they gained the last word.
There was a simple way to resume the series. The Terps should have surrendered their home claim, especially now that Williams is retired, and restarted on Georgetown’s Verizon Center court. There would be enough Terps fans to make it a neutral venue anyway.
Instead, Maryland just shoved Georgetown. Don’t expect the Hoyas to back down.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
