Conference Realignment
In 2024, four West Coast teams will join UMD in the Big
Ten: the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, the
University of Southern California and the University of California, Los
Angeles. While that will add some curveballs to Terps’ travel schedules,
Evans said, he knows conference expansion is inevitable—especially
after Maryland was in the same cleats when it left the Atlantic Coast
Conference in 2014.
“I don’t think we knew how powerful the Big Ten was going
to end up,” he said, noting the financial benefits of joining the
conference and its lucrative media rights deal. “There are two
conferences that everybody talks about joining: the Big Ten and the SEC.
The additions of Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA are great additions
to an already elite conference.”
Leading Through Adversity
Since the start of Evans’ tenure, Maryland Athletics and
the university community have experienced much deeper difficulties. In
2018, offensive lineman Jordan McNair collapsed from heatstroke during a
team workout and died 15 days later.
Two independent external reviews helped change the course
of Maryland Athletics. The department removed the football coach and two
members of the training staff and implemented a series of 41 reforms,
including developing venue-specific emergency action plans and making
cold-water immersion available for all athletic activities. Passage of a
state law, the Jordan McNair Safe and Fair Play Act, followed, and in
2021, UMD partnered
with the Jordan McNair Foundation, founded by his parents, Tonya Wilson
and Martin McNair, to further raise awareness of student-athlete health
and safety.
“Through tragedy, we learned some things about ourselves,
some areas in which we needed to improve,” Evans said. “I’m grateful for
what the McNair Foundation is doing, and that we can help out in some
sort of way and honor his memory…
Read the full article here
