Maryland and West Virginia have tacked four games into their football series, Maryland announced today.
The series now runs uninterrupted through 2017.
West Virginia leads the series 23-21-2 and has won four straight meetings. The schools meet Saturday in Morgantown after a two-year hiatus in the series.
Before Maryland took two years off for a home-and-home with California, the teams had met every year since 1980.
Maryland now has home games against the Mountaineers scheduled for 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017. West Virginia will be at home in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016.
This is a huge plus for both schools. West Virginia, for now stuck with filling out a five-game nonconference schedule, gets a locked-in date against a major-conference opponent that is nearby.
Meanwhile, Maryland gets to re-establish its best (or, at the least, most consistent) nonconference rivalry deep into the decade.
It's a win-win, and a good thing for fans both schools had the foresight to lock up a deal so soon.
What's the rule of thumb of scheduling games in the future? 2017 isn't for some time, but the 100-year anniversary of the series (since 1919) is just right around the corner. I wonder what kept them from aiming for 2019.
Posted by: James | 09/13/2010 at 02:10 PM
James ---
I think it depends on the school.
Im not sure Maryland has done a deal in an increment of more than four years. It had Temple from 1997 to 2000 and again from 2011 to 2014. Theres two-year deals with Cal and Rutgers, 2-and-1s with some smaller schools, etc. Doing it in modest chunks seems like a good way to make sure the situation doesnt change immensely.
Of course, I think Notre Dame has an agreement to play Michigan sometime around 2030 right now. So not every school views it the same way.
Posted by: D1scourse | 09/13/2010 at 02:16 PM