Securing financial stability for years to come, Maryland and Rutgers last week signed on to become the Big Ten’s newest members, additions that could jeopardize Illinois’ spot in the Leaders Division when intraconference realignment is discussed in the spring.

The news was met with positive reaction from Illinois coaches. At his weekly news conference last week, head football coach Tim Beckman said he was shocked by the move but called the two programs great additions. And athletic director Mike Thomas supported the additions in statements last week.

Big Ten fans either expressed concerns or were apathetic toward the news, questioning the quality of the East Coast programs and what it means for Big Ten traditions. But commissioner Jim Delany defended the additions.

“I’m not suggesting that staying status quo is not sometimes the most comfortable approach in life. But I will tell you that Nebraska made sense in its way. Penn State made sense in its way and I think Maryland makes sense in its way,” he said on a Monday teleconference after the Terrapins’ decision was made public. “I actually see one and one equal three, but I’ve been in the minority before and sometimes have been right and sometimes have been wrong.”

Both programs were unanimously approved by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors — the Terrapins on Monday, and the Scarlet Knights on Tuesday after the program’s wait-and-see approach.

Maryland will begin competition in the 2014-15 season after the school pays a $50 million exit fee to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Rutgers’ situation, on the other hand, is a little more complicated.

According to Big East bylaws, a 27-month notice is required from its departing members. So if the Scarlet Knights want to join in 2014, school officials will need to negotiate an earlier exit, like Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia have done before. Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti said the university is working productively with the Big East to strike a deal.

Maryland’s and Rutgers’ move to the largely Midwestern conference is the most recent shift in the college landscape that has seen realignments breaking traditional geographic boundaries. The discussions between Rutgers and the Big Ten have been ongoing for years, Delany said, but talks with Maryland were more recent.

These two schools, along with Penn State, will give the Big Ten a bigger East Coast presence, opening the door for more lucrative TV deals with cable operators in the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas. Each conference member reportedly earns $24 million in revenue from the Big Ten Network.

“I just thought the amount of words devoted and the emphasis were a little overplayed. I never suggested that Big Ten Network or ESPN aren’t factors. What I tried to say was it didn’t drive the decision,” Delany said after Tuesday’s announcement. “The decision was driven on a much more macro level.”

The moves comes months after talks between the Big Ten and the Pac-12 for enhanced scheduling — mainly for football — fell apart. Delany, as recently as Tuesday, has said this would have been an opportunity to expand the conference’s footprint without the addition of another team.

But now Big Ten student-athletes will have to travel farther; College Park, Md., and Piscataway, N.J., become the longest distances from Champaign at 712 and 808 miles, respectively. Penn State was the previous long at 613 miles.

Fans on social media have said they’d prefer new division alignments to be based on geographical locations. But Delany said there have been no discussions among the athletic directors, after dismissing an ESPN report that said Illinois would likely move to the Legends Division.

The Terrapins, who are founding members of the ACC since its inception in 1953, are 4-44-1 against Big Ten schools in football and have never played Illinois. Maryland and Penn State used to play regularly; the Nittany Lions lead that series 35-1-1. The Terrapins have been up and down in the last decade, as their last bowl appearance was in 2010.

The Scarlet Knights have less of a history with their current conference, competing in the Big East in football since 1991 (1995 for all sports). They are 9-26 all-time against the Big Ten in football, including splitting two home-and-home meetings with Illinois in 2005 and 2006. After years of football futility, including a 1-11 2001 season, the Scarlet Knights have appeared in six bowl games since 2005, winning five of those.

For these two schools, this decision goes beyond football. Both institutions have been forced to cut varsity programs because of financial woes in their athletic department.

Maryland in July eliminated seven of its previously 27 teams, including men’s cross-county, men’s tennis, women’s polo and men’s and women’s swimming. But now the university will begin the process of reinstating some of those teams.

“No future Maryland athletic director will ever have to look in young men’s and young women’s eyes and say you can’t play here anymore,” Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson said Monday.

Rutgers in 2006 was forced to cut some varsity sports, including men’s tennis and men’s crew, but Pernetti said the athletic department “will focus first and foremost on making the 24 sports we have here as healthy as we possibly can.”

Darshan can be reached at [email protected] and @drshnpatel.

Jamal Collier contributed to this report.