Ten years after joining the Big Ten Conference, the University of Maryland is spending a fraction on football relative to top rivals, raising questions about its ability to challenge for conference championships.
Maryland spent $30.8 million on football in the 2022 fiscal year — the last period for which comparative figures are available — compared with Ohio State’s $69.1 million, Penn State’s $57.6 million, Michigan’s $52.4 million and Michigan State’s $51.2 million, according to Maryland budget totals obtained by The Baltimore Sun and conference figures in the independent Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database.
Maryland’s football spending was ahead of only Illinois ($29 million) and Purdue ($24.8 million) in the 14-team conference, which next year adds Southern California, UCLA, Washington and Oregon.
The Big Ten median was $40.7 million. The figures are for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. Northwestern’s spending was not available because it is a private university.
Competing against so many larger programs, Maryland has been boosting its investment in football. Its spending rose from $16.2 million in 2014 to $30.8 million in 2022, a 90% increase, according to records obtained in a Maryland Public Information Act request.
“It increased pretty significantly, and it will continue to increase,” athletics department spokesman Jason Yellin said. “We’re going to continue to make those smart investments.”
The Big Ten schools’ median football spending increased during the same period, but not by as much. The median went from $26.7 million to $40.7 million, a 52% rise.
After 61 years in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Maryland joined the more lucrative Big Ten in 2014 in an attempt to elevate the football program, rejuvenate the fan base and provide the athletics department long-term financial security through league-wide revenue sharing.
After going 8-5 (4-5 in conference games) in 2022, football coach Mike Locksley told reporters in August before last season began: “Our program is at a point finally where we can say we’re here to compete for Big Ten championships. You haven’t heard me say that in the previous four times I’ve been in front of you guys, but I think now is the time.”
The Terps recorded the same 8-5 record, finished fourth in their division and won a bowl game for the third year in a row, which was a school record.
At the time it jumped conferences, Maryland was two years removed from dropping seven sports because of budget woes.
Maryland “started from way behind. They had just lost all these sports, and the Big Ten was the massive problem-solver,” said college sports expert Karen Weaver, an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
“But they realized how far they had to catch up in facilities and coaching salaries, and travel [demands] changed.”
In 2021, Maryland opened the Jones-Hill House, containing football practice fields, a strength and conditioning room, locker rooms, auditorium, dining area and other facilities. The complex, which also houses a research center and other nonsports facilities, followed a large fundraising campaign and cost more than $200 million, according to the school.
While their campus home has been overhauled, the football team’s progress in the conference has been uneven.
The Terps have never posted a better than .500 record in Big Ten games, and its record within the conference is 27-57. But their 8-10 conference mark during 2022 and 2023 marked their best two-year performance since joining the league.
“Money doesn’t always equate to wins. Look at pro sports and their teams,” Yellin said. “You have to make the right investments at the right time.”
Maryland’s move to the Big Ten was “a double-edged sword,” said sports marketing expert Jonathan A. Jensen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
On one hand, Maryland has had to significantly elevate football spending to achieve “modest success on a year-to-year basis” against larger powers, Jensen said.
At the same time, the school is now attached to a conference that is expanding while others, such as the Pac-12, have imploded. In August 2022, the Big Ten completed a seven-year media rights agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC that is set to bring in more than $1 billion annually.
In the 2022 fiscal year, according to USA Today, the Big Ten led the Power Five conferences in total revenue at $845.6 million. Maryland received $48.8 million in revenue sharing from the conference in the 2022 fiscal year, and $57.1 million in the year ending June 30 of last year, according to the school’s annual reports to the NCAA.
Maryland, Jensen said, has “the comfortable assurance of remaining in the highest tier of college athletics.”