Things are cyclical, the ACC has lost a ton to graduation the last few years and it finally caught up with a lot of the schools. The ACC has also been let down by their OOC record this year of which SU unfortunately played a prominent role. That said outside of your own Maryland team I am not sure there B10 has become the ACC of 3-4 years ago. Rutgers can't beat anyone of note away from home, Penn State is in year 7 or 8 in the Tambroni era and really hasn't done anything, Ohio State was great last year but took a step back due to graduation which was inevitable, Michigan is still years away, and JHU appears to be having a nice rebound year after a few disastrous seasons including losing by what felt like 40 in last years NCAA tourney and I still don't trust them at all in the NCAA tourney with that defense.
Going into next year, Syracuse, UVA and Duke return a ton, SU and UVA especially return almost everyone. Duke loses Guterding which I think will be massive but their always pretty good. UNC should rebound after an injury decimated year though the loss of Cloutier will be massive. I know JHU, Rutty and Maryland lose a ton to graduation especially Rutgers. Both Conferences are good easily 1-2 but the hyperbole in that article is a bit much.
I think your prediction is a tad pessimistic towards the Big Ten and a tad optimistic towards the ACC. I don't really see the ACC returning to their status 3-4 years ago next year.
PSU, OSU, and Michigan all return a lot next year also. PSU has been struggling with the loss to injury of their star attackman Grant Ament. He should be back next year with Mac O'Keefe and their star FOman Gerard Arceri, and they should be quite tough. Speaking of cyclical, OSU has up odd years and down even years lately, next year is an odd year. OSU showed they can still play pretty well beating UMd last week. I don't know that Michigan is years away, they beat Notre Dame this year and only lost to Hopkins by 1 last week. They will have a lot more senior leadership next season. Rutgers does lose a lot and could struggle next season. Hopkins loses some top players: Tinney, Stanwick, and Moreland, but don't really lose a lot. They return Marr, Williams and DeSimone and bring in a top attack recruit in Epstein, Foley returns to lead the defense; FOs could be a problem. The Terps lose some key guys: Kelly, Rotanz, Dan Morris, and Bryce Young, but Tillman has been pretty resourceful and has a top attackman in Jared Bernhardt to build his offense around.
Duke does lose Conley and All-ACC goalie Fowler to go with Guterding, so their losses are getting fairly close to the Terps'. Maybe UNC will rebound, maybe OSU will rebound, OSU does return their star LeClaire. Where is Syracuse's big star on offense? Certainly didn't see him last night.
I tend to think the Terps won't be top 5 next year, but then I look at a lot of the other top 5 teams - Denver loses Baptiste, Duke loses Guterding, Albany is already struggling without Fields, and Yale loses Ben Reeves. So it will be interesting.
