The College Football Shuffle

The future of Rutgers Athletics will find the Scarlet Knights competing in the Big East…or the ACC…or the Big Ten….or a newly-established conference that does not even exist today. The college sports landscape is changing on an hour-by-hour basis and the state university of New Jersey is one of the schools that really does not know where they will end up.

For those that don’t follow this stuff there has been a lot of movement the last year or so as schools align themselves with conferences based on one thing and one thing only…money. Much of that will come in the form of TV revenue as conferences with bigger TV markets result in member schools getting more cash as well. While we may think of college basketball as a big-time sport the recent moves and others being talked about really evolve around football which is the sport that drives revenue.

This all hit the fan over the weekend when out of nowhere Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced they were leaving the Big East for the ACC. Syracuse was one of the founding Big East members and Pitt came along just a few years later.
Before you point a finger at athletic officials for lack of loyalty you need to know that it’s college presidents who are often the villains and liars. They are the ones, along with trustees who are making moves that are not necessarily beneficial to their coaches, student-athletes, alumni or fans but rather will help the bottom-line which is their biggest concern. In today’s world a college president is not an educator but a CEO and fundraiser and the bigger the school the bigger the money involved.

Now back to Rutgers. Their main concern is finding an option that is best for their football program and it just might be following Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC where they would join the likes of North Carolina, Maryland, Duke, Boston College and Virginia Tech. Actually the Scarlet Knights would be very interested in hooking up with the Big Ten and schools like Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Or they could stay in a Big East conference that would merge with Big 12 leftovers like Kansas and Missouri because it appears Texas and Oklahoma are on their way to the Pac 12. Remember when geography played a part in your conference….not any more. Oh and what about the Big East schools that don’t play football including Seton Hall, St. John’s and Georgetown? Good luck, you’re on your own!