Big Ten Expansion: Maryland To Big Ten, Announcement At 4 PM

On Monday, the University of Maryland Board of Regents voted unanimously to join the Big Ten, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy. An announcement is expected at 4 PM Eastern. With Maryland joining the Big Ten as #13, Rutgers is likely headed to the Big Ten as well.

From there, Maryland will officially apply for Big Ten membership and needs at least nine of the 12 Big Ten presidents/chancellors to approve the move. More or less a formality.

Maryland trades in 60+ years of history and tradition in the ACC for the money and stability of the Big Ten. The move is not universally popular on Maryland's end. Rutgers fans are obviously ecstatic, but Big Ten fans? Not so much.

So now the ACC waits for the other shoe -- the Big Ten's #14 -- to drop. All indications are that Rutgers will be the Big Ten's #14 invite, but a Georgia Tech-to-Big Ten rumor keeps cropping up. If the Big Ten does invite Rutgers, most reports have the ACC inviting Connecticut to the conference to replace Maryland.

If the conference loses both Maryland and Georgia Tech, Swofford and the ACC could slow play any further expansion and wait it out with 12 all-sports members and Notre Dame. Georgia Tech bolting would also be bad news for UConn, obviously. Georgia Tech is an AAU member and represents another large media market, however the timing of any move in conference affiliation seems off with the school's former Athletic Director recently being named the next A.D. at Clemson.

And so, we wait. Leave your thoughts on Maryland's move below.