In the early 1980s, Rutgers was offered an opportunity to leave the then Eastern 8 (predecessor of the Atlantic 10) and become a charter member of a newly formed athletic conference known as the Big East. Athletic Director Fred Gruninger turned down the invitation to the Big East, prioritizing football over basketball and paving the way for Seton Hall to join the league. Rutgers spent much of the next 15 years languishing in mediocrity in men's basketball and football and ended up joining a revamped version of the Big East almost 15 years later.
Rutgers would stay in the Big East for almost the next 15 years, earning zero NCAA tournament invites in men's basketball and going from being an oft-ridiculed, winless football program that turned to a nascent head coach who put them in a position of being a regular bowl team and occasional contender for conference titles and New Year's Day bowls.
The women's basketball team was the only program with sustained national success during that era as it transitioned from one Naismith Hall of Fame coach in Teresa Grentz to another in C. Vivian Stringer. In her time at Rutgers, Grentz brought the school its only National Championship winning the AIAW in 1982. Stringer ushered in the Big East era by announcing her plan to build the program into the "Jewel of the East" and quickly went to work, upsetting seventh-ranked Penn State in her first game as coach. Stringer would lead the most successful program in Rutgers history, becoming the first coach in NCAA history to lead three schools to a Final Four. Stringer gave the athletics department national credibility and a road map demonstrating that the school could be consistently successful nationally, even garnering a pre-season #1 ranking in 2001.
The fortune of Rutgers changed dramatically in 2012 when a cash-strapped department decided to exit the ill-conceived Big East to join the Big Ten Conference. Also that year, Greg Schiano, on the eve of signing a top 15 recruiting class, bolted New Jersey to take the reins of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, changing the fortunes of Rutgers for years to come.
Rutgers, a large, public research university, was much more in line with the schools in the Big Ten, like Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, than it was what was left in the remnants of the Big East, mostly smaller, private schools without an FBS football team like Georgetown, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova. In the era of widespread conference expansion, Rutgers and its New York/Philadelphia market was a perfect match for the needs of the Big Ten conference and vice versa.
The total share at the time of entry in the Big Ten was rumored to be approximately $42 million, compared to the $6 million paid out by the Big East to its members. That number has since expanded exponentially in the wake of the conference signing a rights deal worth $8 billion that will line the pockets of the member schools for years to come. Now, with the prospects of financial security, the only questions remaining were what this would mean for the University's academics and whether Rutgers could compete athletically.
A largely underreported benefit of joining the Big Ten was the opportunity to join the consortium of schools in the conference. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation allows Rutgers to share resources with the other major academic research institutions in the conference, saving the school on contracts, library purchasing, insurance, and additional group costs. In addition, students now have access to libraries, research at the other member institutions, and joint study abroad programs. As remote technology evolves, the possibilities for synergy are endless. Undoubtedly, the caliber and type of universities in the Big Ten are the most aligned with the mission of Rutgers of any athletic conference in the country.
The biggest current misnomer is that Rutgers cannot be competitive in the conference. Certainly, nobody expected Rutgers to come in and sit atop the Big Ten football standings by regularly defeating perennial powerhouse teams like Ohio State and Michigan. Those who cite lopsided losses to Ohio State as the reason Rutgers doesn't belong in the conference are, at best, misguided and have very short memories.
It wasn't too long ago that Rutgers was getting beat by similar scores when playing Miami, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia while residing in the Big East football conference. The difference then was that the program was also losing to Princeton and other Division I-AA teams and making the cover of Sports Illustrated in mockery. That program no longer exists in Piscataway and will only improve as time progresses and Rutgers reaches the fully funded status of the other conference members.
There is no reason Rutgers cannot remain a competitive, consistently bowl-eligible football team with years where they surprise, upset the top teams, and end up in the top 25, similar to conference mates Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois, with the goal being to become like Michigan State or Wisconsin, a notch below Michigan and Ohio State but nationally competitive. These schools have revenue and tradition head starts on Rutgers, which cannot be ignored. While it may take time to catch up, Rutgers has the resources and is on a trajectory to reach that level.
The more powerful argument for belonging in the conference has been the renaissance in the other Rutgers sports moving from becoming primarily regional teams to national impact programs. Men's basketball has made the NCAA Tournament two years in a row (it would have been three had the 2020 tournament not been canceled), was nationally ranked, and has consistently beaten top 5 ranked teams. Now that the school is in the Big Ten, it can continue to recruit top 100 players and retain a coach who is not looking at the program as a stepping stone to a better conference. The arrival of men's basketball demonstrates the ability of Rutgers to compete at the highest levels nationwide and to model itself as a basketball school rather than just a football school akin to Indiana, Illinois, Purdue, Maryland, and Iowa. While football will always drive the revenue bus, basketball gives the school a national profile.
The "non-revenue" sports have exploded after entrance into the Big Ten. Wrestling has become a national team while having multiple national champions. Baseball has begun to ascend back to the perch it had as one of the premier Northeast programs, also gaining a top 25 ranking last season. Women's soccer is now a perennially ranked national powerhouse making the College Cup Semifinals last season. Field Hockey continues to be nationally ranked, as does men's and women's lacrosse. Men's soccer also spent time in the national rankings since becoming a Big Ten member. There is no dispute that the conference affiliation has been a massive boon for these sports and catapulted Rutgers into success at a national level. For the first time in its history, these programs are competitive with each other, pushing to see who can bring home the first team NCAA national title. Success at this level, brought on by admission to the Big Ten, cannot be understated or ignored as a significant collateral benefit to the school and in favor of joining the conference.
Debate on Rutgers Persists
Joining the Big Ten Conference was and remains the most consequential decision made by the University in decades. For some reason, despite sellout crowds for games like Friday's against Nebraska, a debate persists about the efficacy of joining the conference. Indeed, the disparity in the revenue and costs must be addressed and likely can be as the school receives more funding from the conference and ratchets up its fundraising and sponsorship efforts.
The sight of Rutgers regularly getting drubbed by Ohio State in football is not ideal. However, on balance, the types of schools in the conference, the anticipated revenue from the conference, and the now-established national success by other sports make the Big Ten the appropriate and only proper conference for Rutgers.
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