So, as a result, if the Patriots want to face a ranked opponent they'll have to pack their bags.

``You don't want to be America's guest, going on the road all the time and getting your brains kicked in,'' McNamee says.

Maryland, of the ACC, has agreed to play George Mason, but only amid the safer home-court confines of College Park's Comcast Center. No home-and-home series. Terrapins don't travel.

That brings us to Holy Cross, another program on the rise.

The Crusaders recently have been dropped by the schedule makers at Fordham, Iona, Manhattan, Massachusetts and Providence. And then Boston College, of all schools, called to sever ties.

While it might not mean much to those outside Boston, ending the B.C.-Holy Cross matchup is a big deal.

The schools, whose football rivalry dates to the 1800s, first played basketball in 1905. Boston College abandoned basketball in 1924 and resumed in 1945. They've met just about every year since, with annual home-and-home games that were a circle-that-date special on each school's schedule.