Tell that to the seven non revenue athletic programs that Maryland recently eliminated. Are those programs still respectable?
Of the seven sports Maryland cut, pretty much all were mediocre to bad and had little to no alumni (read: wealthy donors) willing to step up to foot whatever bills needed footing at the time. Men's and women's swimming, men's tennis,
men's indoor track, and men's cross country were all pretty bad for a long time in the ACC. Women's water polo and competitive cheer were brain children of that damn Debbie Yow (former Maryland AD, now tormenting NC State people in the same role) and never should've been varsity sports to begin with. Yow was a terrible money manager and spent money like she ran Michigan.
Many of the olympic sports that remained at Maryland after 2012 are among the best in the country and have been for quite some time. The following were all ranked in the top-5 nationally at some point this academic year:
- Field Hockey (8 national titles overall, including 5 of the last 10, 17 Final Fours)
- Men's Soccer (3 national titles, 13 Final Fours)
- Women's Lacrosse (13 national titles, 23 Final Fours
- Men's Lacrosse (2 national titles, 23 Final Fours, including 3 of the last 5 national runners up)
- Women's Basketball (2006 National Champions, 5 Final Fours)
Four of those five made the Final Four in their respective sports this season. Field Hockey, which had made six straight national semifinals, missed the Final Four this season for just the 3rd time in the last 16 years. Those are the elite programs that take care of themselves.
The next tier of nonrevs at Maryland are baseball and wrestling. Baseball, a 3-seed in this year's NCAA tournament, was a game away from last year's CWS, is on the cusp of back-to-back 40-win seasons, and has been in the conference tournament finals each of the last two years. Maryland's wrestling program which is first all-time in ACC wrestling titles had won four conference titles in its final seven ACC seasons, but took a step back in a much better B1G.
The third tier includes all remaining sports aren't close to championship form and need improvement.
