There are no take-backs when it comes to conference expansion. Once you add teams to your league, you’re stuck with them until further notice.
That’s the unfortunate reality right now for the Big Ten, which would be justified in feeling a small measure of buyer’s remorse for Maryland and Rutgers, two schools that joined the league during its last round of expansion in 2014 and have spent much of this season making the wrong kind of headlines. The additions were designed to increase the league’s TV revenue potential and expanding its footprint to the Washington D.C. and New York/New Jersey markets—a logical business move at the time, although cord-cutting threatens to erode the long-term gains.