I think there's definitely a rivalry and it helps that the Maryland / WVU game is generally early in the year so it doesn't get lost in the hype leading up to the "Backyard Brawl". Unfortunately, its the closest thing we have to a rival.
I think Maryland should try to play Pitt too. Play on the Baltimore - Pittsburgh hatred from the NFL.

That sounds like fun and I look forward to Md / WVA.
A natural rivalry would be Maryland- Navy, but that can't seem to get started.

"I detest the mismatches that schools put on the eearly-season schedule simply to fatten their bottom lines. Obviously, the Mountaineers aren’t in that category."

Jeff, You're joking, right? Have you looked at WVU schedules '06-'09?
2009 1-AA Liberty, MMaj East Carolina, MMaj Marshall

2008 1-AA Villanova, Marshall and E Caro again

2007 3 Mid Majors W Mich plus Marshall and E Caro again

2006 1-AA E Wash, Marshall and E Caro again!!!

With B East decimated with loss of best teams to ACC, they've been replaced with ex mid-majors South Florida and Cincinatti and ex 1-AA UConn!! That's 3 of their "conference" games.

If you're going to critizize the Terps, WV falls exactly in the same category, even if small conf allows more out of conf scheduling. They still schedule 3 cupcakes a year.

I'll put MD's games of Cal, Rutgers, Mid Tenn (but for a shoestring tackle as time expired would have beat Ky at Home last year) and James Madison (CAA Champ and in FCS "final four" last year)
Bottom line: Saying WVU schedules harder than terps taking conference and non conf strenth of schedule is off-the-mark.
----FROM JEFF----
Your points are good. But I didn't mean that WVU didn't schedule cupcakes. I meant that WVU wasn't a cupcake for Maryland. Almost every major school is guillty of scheduling patsies.
I rewrote my post to clarify.

A rivalry only works if the other team isn't already in a rivalry game with another opponent (Pitt)...It will be nice to play WV again but it will never be "the big" rivalry game.

i'd rather have md paly west va. than middle tenn state or southeastern north carolina state at kitty hawk

I think that Maryland-West Virginia is a very good match-up. Both are quality schools with quality programs. WVA may have a chip on its shoulder; being the brunt of many jokes, but they are a quality school with a quality program. I look forward to the WVA game every time we play. Go Terps!

We, in WV, too look forward to this game. It was always an interesting game...but it completely got turned up a few notches when Scotty McB left us for Maryland, playbook in hand, and humiliated us several times in the process - Including once on National TV in the Gator Bowl. For a time it looked as if the Fridge simply had RichRod's number. Then Slaton and Pat White evened things up a bit.

We are all thrilled that this game is back on the schedule. It was such a shame it got lost in the shuffle for a couple of years. The WVU-MD matchup was starting to feel like our old VaTech game. A lot of fire and emotion.

I agree that this is great for both schools. I look forward to this game.

Maryland lost Virginia as a rival the second Virginia Tech joined the ACC.

Most WVU fans that I know, myself included, really enjoy the series with MD. We will be looking forward to watching these games again. MD is quality competition for our out-of-conference schedule.

"I detest the mismatches that schools put on the eearly-season schedule simply to fatten their bottom lines. Obviously, the Mountaineers aren’t in that category."

Jeff, You're joking, right? Have you looked at WVU schedules '06-'09?
2009 1-AA Liberty, Mid Maj East Carolina, Mid Maj Marshall

2008 1-AA Villanova, Marshall and E Caro again

2007 3 Mid Majors W. Mich plus Marshall and E Caro again

2006 1-AA E Wash, Marshall and E Caro again!

With Big East decimated with loss of best teams to ACC, they've been replaced with ex mid-majors South Florida and Cincinatti and ex 1-AA UConn!! That's 3 of their "conference" games.

So WV plays 3 "cupcakes" each year plus 3 ex-cupcakes that were mid-majors / 1-AA just 3-4 years ago. If anything, with Terps now playing VT, BC and the "U", the ACC conference is now much stonger than Big East while Big East gets substantially weaker.

I'll put MD's games of Cal, Rutgers, Mid Tenn (but for a shoestring tackle as time expired would have beat Ky at Home last year) and James Madison (CAA Champ and in FCS "final four" last year)against WV's Liberty, E Caro, and Marshall anyday.
Bottom line: Saying WVU schedules harder than terps taking conference and non-conf strength of schedule into account is off-the-mark.

Guaranteed sellout-this is a good rivalry for the Terps. We also had a player who left the Mountaineers to be a Terp and did very well against them-
Scott McBrian,

Speaking of the Slaton payback, let us not forget the Scott McBrien payback to WVU when he transferred to MD and dominated WVU in 3 games over two years (bowl game included). McBrien, as you remember, was told he did not "fit" into new coach Rodriquez's system. That was sweet!

The MD-WVU games have always been a fun game. They seemed to be always close. Plus its not a hard trip for fans of either school.

Let's set up a basketball game too. Those were fun, even though MD used to beat WVU pretty good.

I think Penn State would be the most natural rival, as they don't really have one either.

Pitt is Pa State's rival, not really WV. WV is more of a conference rival for Pitt. Maryland is WV's main rival out of conference. Pa State decided not to schedule any tough teams out of conference lately for some reason.

Uh, TerpsFan might wish to show WVU's entire OOC. Every team has at least one cupcake. WVU has taken on the SEC in recent years with 2 wins against MSU and 1 against Auburn. WVU will host Colorado this season and travel to Auburn.

Also, I wonder if MD plays a team as good as ECU every single year. It's almost another conference game and it's a big deal to their fanbase.....this makes it tougher to simply mark down a win.

On the rivalries issue...I don't think the Terps have a heated rivalry in football. There is no "last game of the season" like G-GT, Clem-USC, Auburn-Ala.
You know, I was sad at first when I learned we would break our home-away series with WV that had been yearly since 1980. But after the excitement of the Cal game that replaced it, I would like to see more games that vary year to year. After a 2 year hiatus to play Cal H-Away, 2 years back with WV would be good, then 2 years with some other BCS team we don't play (or have never played before, like Cal was). Playing 1 Big East school (Rutgers) and Pac -10 (Cal) is a good mix with a mid maj and a 1-AA. In '10, it will be Navy, WV, E. Mich and a school to be named later. You can't manufacture a rivalry. It should be longstanding, passionate and hard to get over if you lose for the majority of your fans. Neither WV, UVA nor Navy fit that criteria for me. How about others??

Terps Fan, I think you missed the point...Jeff wasn't saying that WVU doesn't fatten up on a cupcake schedule, he's saying that the Terps scheduling the Mountaineers gives them an opponent that is far above the normal cupcake non-conference opposition...

I think one of the keys to this rivalry are the sheer numbers of Maryland high school students who choose to attend WVU for college. It certainly adds intrigue when they can root against their home-state school and, in many cases, the school they grew up pulling for in sports.

Growing up minutes from College Park but going to WVU for school has made me a big fan of this game. These two schools share the same student applicant pool and there are alot of WVU and UMD alumni in the DC area that makes this game very interesting.

I wouldn't say it's really a "heated" rivalry like WVU-VTech or WVU-Pitt but it is a fun game with mutual respect between the two programs.

Everyone is missing the obvious rival Penn State. This used to be an annual game. Penn State has no rival in the big ten and no longer plays Pitt every year. Bring back the games in Baltimore.

WVU Grad here.....and Maryland resident. I enjoy this game alot. I love the hillbilly jokes coming from those who reside from Dundalk, Glen Burnie and PG county. Those who live in Glass houses should never throw stones...Unless.....you have Pat white and steve slaton......Oh I mean, Coley white, and Noel Devine!!!! Oh and we landed one of your own from Dunbar in Bmore......thanks again Maryland!

I agree that the Maryland-West Virginia rivalry is a natural. However, the only problem is when West Virginia fans attend the game at Byrd, it's almost impossible to get into the rest rooms.

When I asked one of the attendants why this was so, he told me that most West Virginians were unaccustomed to in-door plumbing.

"Terps Fan, I think you missed the point...Jeff wasn't saying that WVU doesn't fatten up on a cupcake schedule, he's saying that the Terps scheduling the Mountaineers gives them an opponent that is far above the normal cupcake non-conference opposition..."
----------------------------------------------------
Keith, My point was that, before last year, Terps played WVU every year since 1980..27 years straight. The dropping of the WV game 1 year ago was replaced with the Cal game...That's a UpGrade in quality over WVU. Nothing else changed in scheduling, so WVU coming back and Cal rotating off is a wash (or downgrade)
The "New Big East" without VaTech, BC and the "U" is now much weaker than ACC. Big East new additions are mid Major and 1-AA promotions, so quality in Big East is way down overall compared to say, Pac-10.
I would prefer Terps to go for untraditional rivals like Cal more often, even if it means less WVU games.

Look I love the WVU MD rivalry. But to say that WVU scheduled cupcakes the last 4 years is not entirely true.

Wins against SEC teams
Road: Miss St
Home: (Miss St, Auburn)
Colorado home and away this year and last. East Carolina who beat WVU and ACC champ Va Tech last year. WVU has scheduled the following future games against Mich St, FSU, LSU

Not to mention bowl victories over Georgia (in atlanta), Georgia Tech, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. Sorry I just like to add that to the nay sayers.

Look the Big east is forced to add some cupcakes due to only having a 7 game conference schedule. WVU has to add 5 OOC teams to the schedule every year.

I can't wait to get the MD rivalry back. There are little negatives to this matchup.

I think one of the keys to this rivalry are the sheer numbers of Maryland high school students who choose to attend WVU for college. It certainly adds intrigue when they can root against their home-state school and, in many cases, the school they grew up pulling for in sports.

Posted by: Mike
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Mike,
If indeed there are the "sheer numbers" you speak of that go to WVU, it might be something other than "choosing" that causes it.
UMD is no. 19 on the current US News & World Reports "Best Colleges" list...WV is not on the list...list stops at no. 67. UMD is much harder to get into than WV. Look for yourself:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-top-public

Sorry, I got it wrong!
Maryland is No. 18 on current list.

Here's yet another reason you can add-Tavon Austin, the incredible tailback from Dunbar chose WV over MD, so you can bet that'll be another Baltimore boy running wild when we play them. I thought losing Austin was one of, if not MD's biggest "miss" in regards to recruiting. He's a beast!

TerpsFan - If you really think that Cal is an upgrade over WVU then you really should do some more research. Beyond the fact that it is cheaper to play a team that is within driving distance as opposed to flying all the way to California the past 2 of the past 3 times Maryland has played WVU; WVU ended up winning a BCS. So I don't see how Cal is a better opponent than WVU.

Also, what does academics have to do with football scheduling?

I know many great people that went to UMCP but you sound like an elitist snob that gives that school a bad name.

Glad to have the games back, but as much as I love the rivalry, MD is in a no-win situation. As has been clarified to me by our "rival" fans, this is a border battle only.

UVA considers VA Tech their rival for obvious reasons. They're in-state rivals, battle for recruits, and now they're both in the ACC. Also a border battle, but UVA yuppies don't consider us rivals.

WVU fans consider Pitt their rivals. Same conference and every West Virginian clings to Pittsburgh sports teams. So they love to puff out their chests with a W over the "big steel city" when they aren't rooting for the Steelers.

We fight for NJ recruits against Rutgers, but no one cares about them and they'd rather rival Syracuse. Penn St. takes our top recruits, but looks at us like the little brother that isn't good enough to get a fair shot (wanting a 2-home and 1-away deal).

Duke & UNC in basketball may be tight at times, but there's no way we unseat them in that series. So, unless we get Navy or Towson goes D-I, this is just a nice afternoon in College Park for a border battle.

the reason a lot of maryland high schoolers go to school at west va. is because they don't have the grades to get into maryland.

Yeah Cal is an upgrade from WVU? WVU has won 2 BCS bowls in the last 4 seasons as well as the Gator over the ACC. We beat another almighty ACC team in UNC in the bowl this year. Cal has accomplished what?

WVU-MD is a perfect OOC matchup and regional rivalry. It is a true rivalry since the series is almost even. I grew up on the WV side of the Potomac River across from Cumberland, MD and this game means a lot to the people in that area and bragging rights. I'll be in Cumberland this weekend sporting the Blue and Gold since we won the last game.

Looking froward to meeting again in 2010. Hope you Terp fans are up for another beating in Motown.

WVUFanInDC:
Sorry if you are insulted and I really don't care if you think trying to strive for both acedemic and athletic excellence are mutually exclusive goals. I'd rather have MD's ranking in the top 20 public universities then a couple of BCS bowl wins. The only BCS bowl that really matters is Nat Champ and last I looked there was a "zero" in that column next to WVU.
But there is a list where WVU is no.1. So you can feel better about yourself, here's the link:

http://spotlight.encarta.msn.com/features/encnet_departments_college_default_article_10schoolsthatpartytheheartiest08.html

As a rabid WVU fan, I'm glad the rivalry with UMD is being renewed. In the past, it's always been one of the games I've most looked forward too, a close second only to sPitt. Looking forward to seeing the Eer's and Terps again in 2010!!!!

This is all the more reason why the ACC needs to drop BC and add West Va. Think about it, West Va has a history of playing Va Tech and the Terps. It wouldn't take long for the Mountaineers to form a feud with UVA aswell. The ACC should put West Va in the same divison as all the other mid-atlantic schools (MY,UVA,VT) and then add Miami U and Georgia Tech for balance.Doing this would bring SEC level intensity to the ACC'S rivalries.

credit Maryland for the series? bs - MD wanted out to play Cal

and stop with the pompous academic "kids don't have the grades to play at Maryland" flame - there are plenty of great and mediocre students on both sides of the Potomac.

Being from Pa I would love to see the Maryland-Penn State series. PSU offered Maryland the same 2 for 1 deal they offered Pitt. Pitt turned it down because of its hatred for JoePA. If anything they should have taken it since Pitt can't sell out its own home stadium for the Backyard Brawl.

But Maryland I think would be a good series. The Southern Speed against the power of the Big 10. I would love to see that. With all the recruits PSU regularly gets from Maryland's backyard I think it would add story lines and intrigue to an already heated rivalry between the two states. JoePa got his first win against Maryland so its not like the two teams haven't played before. Here is to hoping this series can happen in the not too distant future. Go State.

I am a lifelong WVU fan and I consider Maryland one of our rivals. I love playing Maryland and hope we continue to play each other every year. Good luck on your upcoming season.

"A rival is a competing person, company, or team"

We have many "rivals" with whom we compete in an intense fashion. But we have no natural rival where no matter how good or bad a season might go, winning that one game, would make the season. There's no one game where its "for all the marbles" whether we're both 12-0 or 1-11. No bucket game. No axe game. No Commanders trophy game.
We seem to be a geographical red headed step child when it comes to football rivalries. We cant be the only one. So maybe lets find another solid 1A program and start one?

I love when we choose to compete with WVU, CAL, Navy, Rutgers, and other solid OOC opponents. It creates excitement, sells tickets, and brings in $$ for the athletic department. Same thing goes when we schedule quality OOC oppnents in basketball.

I'm excited to have WVU back on the schedule. A quality opponent. Gets the blood boiling a little too.

Maybe someday after JoePa dies, we can renew our football game with PSU. (Really am not wishing for him to die, just his stupid insistence on a 2/1 H/A take it or leave it proposition)
Same goes for JT @ GTown when it comes to basketball scheduling. (If you still think JT doesnt control GT basketball, youre nuts) Both of these are as close to any natural geographical rivalries as you can come up with and the only people being hurt by them not being played every year are the fans)

I wish those of you who think Navy is a natural rival who we should play every year and it would be a 'big game' - forget it.
ARMY-NAVY. Period.
Navy's a great game to have on the schedule every other year. The opening game at Ravens Stadium a few years back was a great day and a great game. I'd love to see the middies come and play at Byrd. And even go on the road to their place. But more money can be made at Ravens Stadium. They are a quality program and the middies and their fans in the stands are great to watch. Wish our fans possessed that kind of contagious positive enthusiasm for their program, coaches, and players no matter how good or bad things are going on the field.

Terps true rival was Penn State. They couldn't get the field goal team on fast enough to win the last time they had a real chance to beat em. I use to cringe when I heard PS fans laugh at Terps for not being able to beat them. I guess there is a need to hype up someone to fill the seats that are vacant at Byrd field.

David and Terps Fan,
Academics? Forget the bias BS you read in USNews and World report. WVU has 25 Rhodes Scholars more than most public universities in the Country. 15 of the Fortune 500 CEO's are WVU grads :Oracle, Fidelity Investments, GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks just to name a few. WVU also has one of the nation's best Forensic Science, Engineering, and Neurology Depts. A university should be farily judged by the success of it's graduates.

Richard L. Howard---you said the 3 best teams left the BE, how is BC a better team? WVU, Pitt, and Syracuse OWN them in the all time series and they never finished higher than 3rd in Conference play. The only winning % they have beating is Rutgers and Temple. The reason why your commissioner wanted them was because of the market. Which makes no sense because nobody in Boston cares about BC athletics.

What makes a rivalry is that the opponent is the biggest game of the year for BOTH teams. It seems to me the only natural rivalry Md has is Johns Hopkins in lacrosse - in-state bragging rights, public vs private, large vs small school, etc. If only they played big-time Bb and Fb.

I think the fact the series is virtually tied all-time certainly leads to the rivalry feeling. The Scott McBrien/ RRod grudge matches - followed by the Steve Slaton / Fridge grudge matches did nothing but intensify the game.

Elitist fools like the guy who cites academics in a sports rivalry thread makes the blood boil (on both sides).

And... when WVU steals recruits like Tavon Austin, Deon Long and Terence Garvin from MD's backyard it is especially sweeeeet!

...And don't forget Pat "The Felon" Lazear. He was in the Terps backyard too.

UMD-Pa State could become the Annual Mason Dixon Line Bowl-North VS South game!!! Could be played in Ravens Stadium in Baltimore and Eagles Stadium in Philly.

UMD-Hopkins isn't a real rivalry either.

I'm a Hopkins grad, and the Princeton game is always bigger than the MD game for us.

The lack of a true rival has always hurt MD football.

WV, Navy and UVA have bigger rivals
PSU is too lopsided to be considered a rivalry

This WVU fan always likes the Maryland games because at least Maryland fans aren't a bunch of wusses. They don't go home crying about their negative treatment in Morgantown. Instead, they give it right back. I respect that.

Huge WVU fan here... the only thing I don't like about the UMD game is that it is difficult to find on TV here in Colorado... too much of a 'regional' feel I guess. I do think it is a good game, though, and always feel Maryland has something up their sleeve that is going to hand us the loss.

3 things that killed great "non-conference" rivalries. The BCS, because teams started loading up on cupcakes, many conferences forcing conference schedules from 6-7 games to 8, and the demise of the Indies to the Super conferences. Remeber when Clemson used to play Georgia every year? GeorgiaTech and Auburn? I am hoping you see more inter-conference with the expansion to 12 games. It gives your whole conference a measure of how good or not they really are.

This is the perfect match up of the worst fan bases in college football. We should have traded Md. to the Big Least when we took Va Tech, Miami and BC in the ACC. Md fans are like the worst house guest you could imagine, less class than the WVA fans if you can believe that. Al Groh

Someone said scheduling Cal over WVU was an upgrade. What rock have you been under Sherlock? Cal is definitely not a step up from WVU but is at least a step or two down. If our governor didnt mandate our game with Marshall we wouldnt be playing them either. Big time schools are hesitant to schedule us not wanting an early ooc loss on their resume, so we will continue playing a mid level team like maryland until PSU will play us again or we find another top 25 team to play on a yearly basis.

"Rivalry" is a loosely-used, misguided term. When rivalry is spoken, the most classic form of the word is interpreted, that being "traditional" rivalry. We all know these "big" games, as well as some of the many lesser known "traditional" rivalries.

Another form of rivalry is the "border war" - but God please don't call this a rivalry, someone will get upset. MD has two border war rivals, UVa and WVU. But please, call them border wars, not rivals or the punks fron UVA will say "MD is not our rival" (in a mousy, self-important, twangy voice). Forgive them, they're a little slower in the south.

Like MD, Penn St. seems to have no traditional "rival", except for the beat down they layed on MD for all eternity. Border war make good rivals, whoops, I mean non-traditional, non-rivals.

Who is Oklahoma's rival? Nebraska, Texas, or maybe its Oklahoma St. with Texas and Nebraska being border wars. Isn't Texas' rival Texas A&M, yet Texas A&M and Texas Tech hate each other like Md and Duke hate each other in basketball. Oh yeah, only the Duke fans don't hate MD, because their rival is Carolina.

The convesation of MD rivals is tiresome and never bears any fruit. Md does not have any traditional rivals (except for maybe Penn. St.) and will play UVa in a border war, will and should play WVU in a border war, and should and I believe will play Navy for some in-state bragging rights.

Smug

Cal is an upgrade over WVU? You beat Cal, you've lost 4 straight to WVU. I guess it is an upgrade in the win department. lol.

I do not want to play a "GAME" were it's not safe to take my family. Many Maryland fans have indured some toothles S.O.B. run up to them in Morgantown and get cussed out or physically assaulted. It's not an enviornment you want to expose kids to.

I do not miss playing WVU. Yow schedules them because it's a garaunteed sell out, with all of the fans from Morgantown coming down to fill the seats. The vast majority of WVU fans are great people but no one should have to fear for their life to see a stupid game!

I say try to schedule an SEC team like Tennessee or Florida to shore up the non conference schedule. Their fans travel well and no one has to get beat up or threatend.

Cal is an upgrade over WVU? You beat Cal, you've lost 4 straight to WVU. I guess it is an upgrade in the win department. lol.

Posted by: wvuinnc
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Yea, Cal is an upgrade. But, I'm not surprised you don't know this. Can you read? If you can, read this:

http://www.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=898567

Cal and three other Pac-10 teams are in top 25, 3 ACC teams are in top 25.
1 Big Least team is no. 24...USF. And USF is the "backfill material" that was used to keep the Big Least a "BCS" conference. All the good teams have left the Big Least. WV is not in Top 25 or even "other consideration" category...Yea, Cal is an UPGRADE, mountain boy.

WV is a good rival, but I'd also like to see a revival to the Penn State game. Now there is a team worthy of every Maryland fan's enmity. We got our asses handed to us the entire duration, but most of it wasn't as lopsided as it seems. The Claiborne/Ross teams were good teams, and it seems many of the games were lost to bad luck as much as anything else. Bottom line is there is unfinished business with Penn State, and we are not the same program that we were in the Duffner era. Since PSU thinks Byrd is too 'small time' for their storied program, maybe they could play some neutral site matches in Baltimore or Philadelphia. Or we could arrange a "home-and-home" between Beaver Stadium and Fedex Field...

Also, Rutgers is another nearby team without a "true" rival of their own. I'd like to see Maryland play a rotating schedule that included teams like Rutgers, WV, Navy, and Penn State. I don't need a year-in year-out "rival" for our OOC schedule -- that's what we have in the ACC with UVA, FSU, NC State, etc. Also like to see a "different" but challenging team thrown into the mix once in a while, like Cal. It is fun to see unusual matchups that you don't happen too often. We should try to schedule a big school from out west once or twice a decade.