In 2012, the University of Maryland lined up more than a dozen of its head coaches — dressed in matching red polo shirts — at a news conference designed, according to an internal email, to present a "visual display of unity."
The event was to formally announce the school's 2014 entry into the Big Ten Conference, a football powerhouse that university officials believed would finally elevate their own middling football program, excite the fan base and provide the athletic department long-term financial security through league-wide revenue sharing.
But six years later, department financial records show a football program dwindling in popularity despite its high-profile athletic conference and a $196 million investment by private donors, the university and the state in a new football field house and multipurpose center.