I know I am bound to draw some boos and hisses, but IMO of the recent additions Maryland is clearly the best pickup. I'm not on the train of saying kick out the new guys... (Although I have said on numerous occasions that Purdue and Northwestern should fall on the knife and deemphasize athletics)... but that notwithstanding I root for the new guys and want to see them do well against everyone but the Buckeyes.

Let's very quickly review what everyone agreed were key factors in 2010-2012 expansion scenarios for the B1G.
1. Academic - especially research prowess, 2. Geography - not necessarily proximity but exposure to new recruiting territories for both student athletes and regular students
3. Athletic pedigree - let's be real athletics drove the bus so obviously traditional power
That turn on televisions and can travel 35000 to a bowl game carries weight.
4. TV Markets. Practically the same as geography but I distinguish a little for the sake of fair weather fans and B1G alumni. If every Maryland or Rutgers gets really good in either basketball and/or football the bandwagon potential is much higher.

I'm roughly paraphrasing Delany during the last round of tv negotiations but he said something to the effect of when you have good content the money will come. I believe that, but with the cable model drying up will auxiliary methods of delivery adequately fill that gap? I am a B1G and BTN fan and watch it probably more than any other channel (hate anti B1G ESPN but Fox is growing on me) for sports content if you include volleyball, wrestling, Hockey, Basketball, Lacrosse, and Football games, so I think there value in making content available on Hulu, Netflix, Twitter, Youtube, or whatever platform is the next it. But will that make up for the lost fees of cable. Better yet will the auxiliary media along with a diminished cable base at least break even so content creation can still happen? I for one hope so.

Anyway, without further ado, my explanation as to why I think Maryland is the best pickup so far.

First off Nebraska. I'm not hating on Nebraska, I like the Huskers and know more than a few of them.
They are passionate and knowledgeable fans. The issue that I have with Nebraska as a long term member is best put like this. 60-70 years ago Minnesota was a perennial National Title contender and now they are a run of the mill Upper Midwest team with a storied past but little recent success and almost no National relevance. Nebraska has a lot of things working in their favor including: Awesome program history, Administrative support, Fan support, elite facilities, financial heft, B1G membership, and name recognition. But they lack the most important "natural resource" of all when it comes to long term success and that of course is recruiting territory. Nebraska has long been an anomaly with excellent leadership, an amazing walk-on program and (until the BigXII) a conference slate that really only had 1 real tough game in Oklahoma. Take a look around the country and find another example of a long term successful program that is further than a 3-4 hour drive away from 1 or more major recruiting areas. Obviously NU budgets heavily for recruiting but what proportion of recruits actually go to school more than a 3-4 hour drive away from home?

Rutgers - I know a lot of people hate Rutgers. I don't. I think there is a lot of potential. They are in a horribly run state that has had no support for forever but after they get their full allotment of B1G cash we will get a better picture of what they are capable of. They are clearly the worse pickup of the 3 in terms of... well everything except wrestling and Lacrosse, but I dont expect that a man malnurtured for years and for all intents and purposes still starving to be able to fight competitively with behemoths.

Finally Maryland. I really think that Maryland was a good pick up and would have loved to see a UVA, UNC, and GT join as was rumored at the time. Maryland has won national titles in Lacrosse, been 1st or 2nd in basketball every year (Mens and Women). Committed resources to volleyball and is getting better, and overall seems to be a well run athletic department. Even the football teams have been competitive against everyone but Ohio State. They are in 2 major recruiting areas in football and basketball in B-more and DC with Philly about 2 hours away and NYC about 4 hours away. Virginia Beach/Tidewater area is also fairly close so there are tons of recruits IN ALL SPORTS relatively close to campus.
If there was something. I were to knock about UMD is that there has been no sustained success in football and I'm not sure that even if that were to happen, that fans would support the school. 2 issues:
Issue#1. other than Penn State are the fans really invested? I think fans miss UVA, Duke, UNC, NC St, & Va Tech and the basketball and Lacrosse rivalries built up over 50 + years. Issue#2 The Redskins and the Ravens. Popularity of the NFL is down on account of kneeling but I suspect that in time
Popularity will increase again. It is bad enough when 1 popular team sucks all of the attention in the market. Maryland has 2 and Rutgers has 3 in the Giants, Jets, & Eagles.

Overall I think Maryland has been a well run athletic department, a quality school, and has shown that they are capable of knocking of Texas 2 years in a row BEFORE they are even regarded as a top echelon team. Throw in the huge DC and B-more markets, availability of elite recruits in all sports and annual games with PSU, OSU, & Michigan that all have the potential to be huge ratings wins if and when Maryland gets good and you can see why I think Maryland was our best pickup over the blueblood program in Nebraska.