Rutgers To Announce Its Joining Big Ten
NEW YORK (AP) — Rutgers is leaving the Big East for the Big Ten and cashing in on the school's investment in a football program that only 10 years ago seemed incapable of competing at the highest level.
The school will make its decision official Tuesday at a news conference on its campus in Piscataway, N.J., with Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany joined by Rutgers University President Robert Barchi and athletic director Tim Perenetti.
Rutgers will leave the Big East, where it has been competing since 1991. The move follows Maryland's announcement Monday that it was departing the Atlantic Coast Conference to join the Big Ten in 2014. Rutgers will be the Big Ten's 14th member.
Rutgers also plans to join its new conference in 2014, though the Big East requires 27 months' notification for departing members. The Scarlet Knights will have to negotiate a deal with the Big East to leave early.
Whenever Rutgers enters the Big Ten, it will be the culmination of one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college sports.
In 2002, the Scarlet Knights football team went 1-11 under second-year coach Greg Schiano, who then seemed like the latest coach incapable of reviving a program that had been the laughingstock of major college football for more than a decade.
However, the team made steady improvement on the field as the university made the huge financial commitments necessary to support a major college football program.
Facilities were upgraded, the on-campus stadium was expanded and as Schiano started to win, his salary began to rise into the millions. Not everyone on campus embraced the idea of turning Rutgers into a big-time football school, and it did come at a cost.
The expanded and renovated stadium cost of $102 million. The school had hoped to raise the money through private donors, but fell short. Rutgers scaled back plans for the expansion and issued bonds and borrowed money to complete the project.
In 2006, the school had to cut six varsity sports, including men's tennis and crew. As the football program has become a consistent winner — Rutgers has gone to a bowl six of the last seven years — the athletic department has received tens of millions in subsidies from the university.
Schiano left for the NFL last year, and Rutgers hired longtime assistant Kyle Flood, who has the Scarlet Knights poised to take make another big step in their development. No. 21 Rutgers (8-2) is in position to win its first Big East championship and go to a BCS game for the first time.
In the Big Ten, the amount of revenue Rutgers receives from the league's television and media deals should quadruple in the short-term and could be even more than that in years to come.
The Big Ten reportedly paid its members about $24 million dollars last year. The Big East's payout to football members last year was $6 million.
In exchange, the Big Ten gets a member in the largest media market in the country, and new presence along the East Coast, with Rutgers and Maryland as north and south bookends.
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