B1G All-Decade Grades: Maryland

While 2020 has come out the gates in relatively crummy fashion, the decade leading up to it were some of the Big Ten’s best. Huge TV deals, and overall success highlighted the 10 year span in the conference.

In an attempt to reflect upon the good times — the period of time from 2010 to 2019 — we at B5Q have set out to grade each football and basketball program over that time span.

The fourth installment of this series focuses on one of the newest members of the B1G, the Maryland Terrapins. It will only include the years that the Terps were in the B1G, so 2014-15 to present in other words.

Photo by Lon Horwedel/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Football Grade: C-

When Maryland and Rutgers joined the Big Ten conference for the 2014-15 season it was hailed as a great victory for...the Big Ten Network and the sparkling new television markets that it had acquired. The Terps were 13-24 in their first three years of the Randy Edsall era, but were coming off of a 7-6 seasons, their best under Edsall.

In their six seasons of B1G football, Maryland has had one winning season (7-6 their first year) and two bowl appearances (both losses). They have had four head coaches and been ranked in the AP Poll exactly one time, and then went 1-9 the rest of the season. They have beaten a ranked Texas team twice but only managed 14 conference wins, many of which came against Rutgers.

The Terps have produced some high-end NFL talent, though, with six draft picks in the last two drafts including two first rounders. Against Wisconsin, Maryland is 0-3 but the teams haven’t played since 2017.

Maryland’s recruiting has seen an uptick in recent years, going from No. 11 in the B1G in 2019, to No. 6 in 2020 to No. 3 in 2021 currently, and College Park, Md. is right in the middle of the fertile recruiting DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) zone. The Terps always seem to have everything in place to eventually be pretty good...they just never get there.

Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images

Basketball Grade: B+

While the Maryland football team has been mainly an embarrassing afterthought, the basketball team has been at, or near, the top of the conference almost every year since they joined the B1G. The Terps are 145-56 in their B1G careers including a 73-39 record in conference play. Maryland also shared the 2020 B1G conference regular season title (with Wisconsin and Michigan State), their first title since joining the conference.

The Terps have made the NCAA Tournament every year they’ve been in the B1G except one (they missed it in 2018 and would have made it this year if there had, you know, been an NCAA Tournament) and have finished ranked in the AP Poll three times.

Maryland has had a handful of players picked in the NBA since they joined the B1G (Kevin Huerter, Bruno Fernando and Jake Layman) and will likely see Jalen Smith picked in this year’s draft.

Overall, Maryland has been a very good basketball team in the B1G but has never quite lived up to their fans’ expectations. There have been repeated calls for Mark Turgeon’s job, which will probably die down now that the Terps are defending conference champs, but a slow start to next year could bring “FIRE MARK” back to the forefront.