I’m in Comcast Center, and university officials are preparing for Kevin Anderson’s 3 p.m. press conference.

There is a large media contingent present, at least larger than I’ve seen so far this season, ranging from ESPN to The Washington Post and multiple local television stations.

Topics that will be discussed include:

The firing of Ralph Friedgen and if he accepted a buyout.

Will Friedgen coach in the Military Bowl? And if not, which assistants will be present?

Who will be the next coach of the Terps, and are rumors about Mike Leach true?

Check The Diamondback later for a full story, and to stay up to date as the press conference happens follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

Jakob Engelke is a senior staff writer and reporter for The Diamondback. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

So at this point everybody’s heard the speculation that the Athletic Department may attempt to buy out Terrapin football coach Ralph Friedgen’s contract.

It remains to be seen what will come of this situation, or if Friedgen will even still be around when the Terps play East Carolina on Dec. 27th in the Military Bowl.

So if reports are true and Friedgen — along with Offensive Coordinator James Frankin — is hitting the bricks, here are some possible replacements, as suggested by ESPN’s Joe Schad.

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It’s been a pretty crazy week, especially with the latest news that Terrapin football coach Ralph Friedgen may be asked to accept a buyout and retire.

But just so we know where we stand, let’s look at how we got here:

– February 2009: James Franklin is named offensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting. His contract stipulates he must be paid $1 million if he does not assume full coaching duties by January 2012, the final year of coach Ralph Friedgen’s contract.

– Nov. 18, 2010: Athletics Director Kevin Anderson announces Friedgen will return for the 2011 season, the final year on his contract.

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As per Vanderbilt’s athletics site, James Franklin has accepted the head coaching job at the school.

No reaction from Maryland yet.

An article appeared in the finals edition of The Diamondback that claimed Terrapin football offensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting James Franklin would not be taking the head coaching job at Vanderbilt, as The Washington Post reported Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn would take the position.

Those reports were apparently wrong. Malzahn got a raise to stay at SEC champion Auburn, and there are conflicting reports about Franklin’s job status.

The most telling quotes might come from current coach Ralph Friedgen:

“I’m anticipating [Franklin being hired],” Friedgen told ESPN.com on Tuesday night. “I talked to him this morning, but it hadn’t been finalized. Life goes on. I wish him the best of luck. I think he did a great job for us. I congratulated him. I’ve got to see what the fallout is and go from there.”

ESPN is reporting Franklin has told the university he will leave for Vanderbilt. And frankly, it’s not surprising that Friedgen isn’t terribly upset about Franklin moving on. With no coach-in-waiting breathing down his neck, Friedgen has set himself up for a possible contract extension after going 8-4 in the regular season this year. The university won’t be forced to make Franklin the head coach, nor will they have to pay $1 million because he isn’t head coach in 2011, and Athletics Director Kevin Anderson has been a critic of the coach-in-waiting system since he took over in October.

Franklin leaving obviously has its drawbacks for the Terps. He’s regarded as a fantastic recruiter, has helped make ACC rookie of the year Danny O’Brien one of the most promising Maryland quarterbacks in recent years, and his charisma and persuasiveness made him an intriguing option as a head coach.

While a head coaching job isn’t guaranteed at Maryland for Franklin and makes the move to SEC cellar-dweller Vanderbilt more inticing, Jeff Barker of The Baltimore Sun offers an interesting look into the mind of James Franklin in terms of the decision.

Nothing has been made official yet, and it isn’t surprising that the athletics department has said nothing of the matter. Several players, namely linebacker Adrian Moten and defensive tackle A.J. Francis have tweeted in a way that make it sounds like Franklin to the Commodores is inevitable.  As soon as anything is made official, you’ll find it here.

Jeremy Schneider is The Diamondback’s sports administration beat writer. He can be reached at schneider@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jschneider_.

Terrapin football coach Ralph Friedgen took the court at halftime of the Terps basketball game against Boston College today, asking fans for a “favor” and to buy tickets to the Military Bowl.

Friedgen gave a sales pitch to students and alumni, saying that East Carolina had already sold its ticket allotment and that he doesn’t want to play in front of a purple-clad crowd.

“We have been offered a challenge,” Friedgen said. “As a school and as a football program, we need to meet this challenge. We need to show up and show what our school represents.”

He didn’t show any hostility toward the Military Bowl, following suit with his previous comments on the issue, instead pointing a finger at the other bowls.

“In a way they disrespected our school in the process,” Friedgen said to applause from the crowd. “I’m a Terp also, and there seems to be a perception that we have not traveled and supported our team in bowl games.”

The crowd inside Comcast Center greeted the presentation with cheers and applause, and it seems like Friedgen made a good move. But we’ll have to wait until Dec. 29, when the Terps face East Carolina in the Military Bowl, to see if his sales pitch had any impact.

On the basketball front, the Terps lead Boston College, 41-39. Jordan Williams (13 points, six rebounds), Terrell Stoglin (10 points, three rebounds) and Dino Gregory (eight points, four rebounds) have paced the Terps.

Jakob Engelke is The Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s basketball columnist. He can be reached at jengelke@umdbk.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke.

It has been long assumed that Maryland, the de facto flagship university of Under Armour, would become the company’s Oregon — meaning new products and innovative uniform designs would be tested out by the Terps as Nike does with the Ducks. While it might not be on par with Oregon’s 2,456 uniform combinations, it appears the Terps might be moving in that direction.

Quarterback Danny O’Brien tweeted last night that he had seen new uniforms as a part of his hosting of several football recruits. Though he failed to go into detail about them, when I caught up with him today he divulged some more information about them.

O’Brien said that he didn’t see the actual uniforms, but rather a photo of four different uniforms. I imagine the shot was something like this one of the basketball uniforms. Though he didn’t go into much more detail than that, he said he would try to tweet a picture of the photo he saw. There’s no word on if the uniforms are slated to be used next year, but considering they were using the picture as a recruiting tool — and the fact that the basketball team has four uniforms for this season — it wouldn’t be a shock to see them in play for 2011.

But if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be the first time the university hasn’t followed through on new uniforms. Former sports editor Aaron Kraut tweeted from this year’s spring game that the Terps would be wearing yellow uniforms for their game against Navy this year — which didn’t happen. Associate athletics director Doug Dull said that the yellow unis were planned but simply fell through.

Under Armour obviously doesn’t have the same kind of cache that Nike does, which could explain why they aren’t as lavish in their uniform combinations. Oregon actually never wears the same uniform combination twice. But NBA agent David Falk — the man who coined “Air Jordan” while MJ’s agent — said in one of my journalism classes recently that he thought if any company could challenge Nike’s stranglehold on the sports outfitting industry, it would be Under Armour.

The two companies will be pitted against each other in the national championship game on Jan. 10, as Nike’s fashionistas Oregon face off against Under Armour’s Auburn. There’s no word on if the Tigers will don special jerseys. But it’s already been announced that Oregon will be rising to the occasion with new unis, which will be revealed Tuesday. It was interesting to see that Under Armour has started to use graphics on gloves in a similar manner as Nike. Considering Maryland’s obsession with its state flag, gloves with a similar print on them wouldn’t be a surprise.

As far as Maryland goes, I’ll be sure to post if Danny O’Brien does tweet that picture of the uniforms. I’ll also see what I can do about finding out if Maryland will wear their Wounded Warrior uniforms for the Military Bowl, which would be a nice gesture considering the game benefits the USO. No official word on that at all, just a thought.

Jeremy Schneider is The Diamondback’s sports administration beat writer and self-proclaimed uniform columnist. He can be reached at schneider@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jschneider_.

UMBC has no answers so far for the Terps, as the team enters halftime up 40-16 over the weaker Retrievers.

The Terps’ defense has been markedly stronger to this point. I guess their work in practice yesterday paid off. It’s been much more intense, forcing the Retrievers deep into the shot clock. This has yielded several bad shots and a couple shot-clock violations.

Be sure to check out the Diamondback’s finals edition next week for a full recap of what, at this point, seems likely to be the Terps’ eighth straight victory.

The Terps are set to host UMBC tonight at Comcast Center. As usual, the No. 22 Terps have used a good deal of their nonconference slate on local rivals — they’ve already played Georgetown, Towson, American and Loyola, and will face Delaware State next weekend.

Look for the Terps to strap up defensively tonight, as they spent most of their practice yesterday focusing on on-ball coverage and communication. The Retrievers’ Princeton offense won’t likely challenge the Terps too much, as UMBC lacks the athleticism of a high-caliber team, but it will give the Terps a chance to improve their team defense against a complex, motion offense.

Forward Alysa Thomas is back in the lineup tonight with a bandage around her left knee, which she cut against Appalachian State on Sunday. The cut required 10 stitches, and she missed Tuesday’s game at Loyola as it healed.

Look for coach Brenda Frese to mix things up on the court a bit tonight. She experimented with a big set at yesterday’s practice, which included three forwards (Diandra Tchatchouang, Tianna Hawkins and Thomas) and center Lynetta Kizer. Thomas and Tchatchouang are both good with the ball, and such a set would give the Terps a chance to further capitalize on their length, which Frese said has become their “forte.”

No word yet on the starting-5, but with Thomas back, my guess would be: G-Natasha Cloud and Anjale Barrett, F-Thomas and Tchatchouang and C-Kizer.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/Conor__Walsh for live updates during the game.

Here’s a video of last night’s superb Cliff Tucker-Jordan Williams alley-oop: