Having grown up in the Baltimore area, I have always followed and like the Terps. They have had a few more ups than some people are willing to give them here......in the mid '50s they had some top 10 teams. In the mid to late '70s they had some very good teams.......they came within a Cotton Bowl loss to Houston of finishing #2 or possibly winning the NC in '77 or '78. In the early '80s they were better than Ohio State due to the outstanding QB play of Boomer Esiason and the excellent Coach Bobby Ross. But after that it was pretty disastrous for the Terps until Friedgen resurrected his alma mater in 2000.
The pre-UM/VT/BC ACC conference was #1 FSU and then a hord or decent teams like Maryland, Virginia, NC State, Georgia Tech, and either Clemson or UNC. Maryland's only shot at an ACC title was in 2001........and they got destroyed by Florida in their bowl game that year......not a good sign for a program trying to throw its head into the ring of contenders.
FB at Maryland isn't as big as BB is at Ohio State. So I'd say
OSU is a moderately better BB school in the past 20 years than Maryland has been a FB school over that same timespan.
Could Maryland vs
OSU be an interesting FB game in 2005? Sure, but only if you're interested in Maryland taking a beating. But so would any mid level ACC team....so don't take any offense by that. But Ohio State is loaded in 2005 and poised to challenge for the NC. After 2005, then perhaps the matchup would be a closer one.
By the way, I'd compare Maryland to the following BigTen teams:
the last 5 years: Wisconsin....up and down with one really good season
the last 3 years: Northwestern or Michigan State
the last 10 years: Purdue......1 really good season and a couple good ones
the last 20 years: Illinois......2 horrible seasons for every good one
the last 30 years: Michigan State....a couple brushes with Top 10
the last 50 years: Illinois.....not quite as good as Iowa