Keep Choppin'

I almost feel bad dropping this one after finding out that my old blogger friends are back blogging over at Beat Visitor, but nobody else seems to want to take Rutgers to task for their continuing athletic fraud. I'm not talking about the state of New Jersey's finances in relation to the product that the Scarlet Knights football team puts on the field. That fiscal argument nonsensical blather.

My complaint with Rutgers is real.
In the last decade Rutgers has emerged as a winner within the Big East and an occasional late season player in the yearly BCS running. In that same ten year period RU has beaten all of ten teams that finished in the top 50 of chi-square linear W/L rankings. We will look at Rutgers' victories over the last ten years....

H/A Win  Score (opp. record) rank Opponent
Rutgers      2010 3-2
H W 31-0 (2-3)       367 Norfolk State College
A W 19-14 (1-4)     177 Florida International
H W 27-24 (3-3)       79 Connecticut

Rutgers      2009 9-4
H W 45-7 (2-9)       464 Howard University
H W 23-15 (3-9)     156 Florida International
A W 34-13 (2-10)   115 Maryland
H W 42-0 (6-5)       256 Texas Southern
A W 27-10 (5-7)     132 Army
A W 28-24 (8-5)       36 Connecticut
H W 31-0 (8-5)         52 South Florida
A W 34-14 (4-8)       86 Louisville
B W 45-24 (8-5)       64 Central Florida


Rutgers     2008 8-5
H W 38-0 (6-6)        241 Morgan State
H W 12-10 (8-5)        43 Connecticut
A W 54-34 (9-4)        26 Pittsburgh
H W 35-17 (3-9)      104 Syracuse
A W 49-16 (8-5)        45 South Florida
H W 30-3 (3-9)        132 Army
H W 63-14 (5-7)        86 Louisville
B W 29-23 (6-7)        47 North Carolina State

Rutgers      2007 8-5
H W 38-3 (5-7)        122 Buffalo
H W 41-24 (8-5)       74 Navy
H W 59-0 (8-3)       203 Norfolk State College
A W 38-14 (2-10)   121 Syracuse
H W 30-27 (9-4)       18 South Florida
A W 41-6 (3-9)       146 Army
H W 20-16 (5-7)       77 Pittsburgh
B W 52-30 (7-6)       89 Ball State

Rutgers      2006 11-2
A W 21-16 (3-9)      99 North Carolina
H W 33-0 (2-10)    112 Illinois
H W 24-7 (9-5)        75 Ohio University
H W 56-7 (5-6)      273 Howard University
A W 22-20 (9-4)      34 South Florida
A W 34-0 (9-4)        44 Navy
A W 20-10 (6-6)      49 Pittsburgh
H W 24-13 (4-8)      69 Connecticut
H W 28-25 (12-1)      4 Louisville
H W 38-7 (4-8)        68 Syracuse
B W 37-10 (7-6)      63 Kansas State

Rutgers      2005 7-5
H W 38-6 (4-7)     229 Villanova
A W 17-3 (1-10)   197 Buffalo
H W 37-29 (5-6)    58 Pittsburgh
A W 31-9 (1-10)  126 Syracuse
A W 26-24 (5-6)   82 Connecticut
H W 31-21 (8-4)   59 Navy
H W 44-9 (4-7)     93 Cincinnati

Rutgers      2004 4-7
H W 19-14 (5-7)  70 Michigan State
H W 29-21 (5-6) 134 Kent State
A W 37-34 (2-9) 110 Vanderbilt
H W 16-6 (2-9)   129 Temple

Rutgers      2003 5-7
H W 24-10 (1-11)  175 Buffalo
A W 36-21 (0-13)  206 Army
H W 48-27 (8-5)     75 Navy
A W 30-14 (1-11)  143 Temple
H W 24-7  (6-6)      66 Syracuse

Rutgers      2002 1-11
H W 44-0 (1-11)    262 Army

Rutgers      2001 2-9
A W 31-15 (3-8)   149 Buffalo
H W 23-17 (0-10) 165 Navy

Rutgers      2000 3-8
H W 34-21 (5-6)   165 Villanova
H W 59-0   (2-9)   238 Buffalo
A W 28-21 (1-10) 191 Navy


... and then we'll look at the games that stand out as the best wins for Rutgers in the 2000's.
Those teams represent the top teams the Scarlet Knights beat in the aughts and those teams' combined records stand at a lukewarm 84-45 in those years.


2009 (8-5) 36 Connecticut
2008 (8-5) 43 Connecticut
2008 (9-4) 26 Pittsburgh
2008 (8-5) 45 South Florida
2008 (6-7) 47 North Carolina State
2007 (9-4) 18 South Florida
2006 (9-4) 34 South Florida
2006 (9-4) 44 Navy
2006 (6-6) 49 Pittsburgh
2006 (12-1) 4 Louisville

(84-45)


That isn't the total record of the teams Rutgers beat (that number is 287-424) - that's the record of the best of the best teams Rutgers played in the last decade. Outside of RU's 2006 defeat of 12-1 Louisville none of the Scarlet Knights wins came against a 10 win team.


Teams schedule light for a reason - God knows, Army has been taking on softer schedules in an attempt to stay afloat. From my perspective what Rutgers is doing is outright fraud. At no point in their 20 year involvement with Big East football have Rutgers finished first in the league. It's one thing to schedule creampuffs to make a bowl game and achieve the top 25... it's another to schedule light solely to deceive recruits and rip off fans by masquerading as a BCS level program.

Rutgers fans will ask, "How is that any different than what Army is doing with their schedule?"
My response is simply - Rutgers is the team residing in a BCS conference and Rutgers is the program recruiting NFL talent. The pinnacle of this fraud can be seen on Rutgers' new athletics site, which annoyingly enough is a flash site with individual pages that I can't link out to.

Rutgers Football New Jersey's Team

 Rutgers is located in the heart of the world's largest media market.

New Jersey's team, huh?  #1 Media market?.. humbug. Though that main page photoshop is bad enough to make it seem like Rutgers Stadium was built on Ellis Island. Considering the history Army has playing games at the Polo grounds and in Yankee Stadium I'm going to suggest that New York City is belongs to Army. Saying something is fact is as simple as that.

Rutgers has caught the nation's attention in recent years, appearing on television in 60 of the last 62 games.

They have appeared on some form of national television in each of the last 39 contests.

Well, I don't think ESPN3 counts toward that, which is by itself is enough to piss me off. Way to showcase the New Meadowlands, "SUNJ".

Rutgers is a program that wants to believe that the nation's #1 media market is watching them; RU wants to believe that they are a BCS bowl contender (who knows, they just might win the Big East this year). But this dream that Rutgers has been anything resembling a top 60 program is simply make believe, and a disservice to Scarlet Knights fans and Rutgers recruits.

No matter how light Rutgers schedules, that's their prerogative, but the potential scenario that Rutgers can draw up a schedule similar to Army's, win 6 Big East games - and skate into a BCS game is mind blowing. I'm just thankful that RU just isn't good enough to produce those kinds of seasons.

As light as SUNJ does schedule, I can't get bent about Rutgers making room on their schedule for Army. That, to me, is what this is all about. Rutgers fans may want to drop Army to and schedule a BCS team, but that's just not what Rutgers is about. As it is, Army is Rutgers' 3rd most played Div 1-A opponent with 36 games. 


Syracuse         (40) 10-29-1
West Virginia (37) 4-31-2
Army               (36) 18-18-0

As much as they need to start scheduling tougher opponents, Rutgers can't claim the New York media market without playing and beating Army. Army runs New York, and SUNJ knows that. This weekend, in front of  "53 million broadband subscribers" Rutgers will play Army for bragging rights to New York City.
FOR KEEPS.

Since I have you worked up, vote for HC Rich Ellerson for coach of the year, Rutgers fans, I can't expect you to vote for either Ellerson or Schiano... I guess you all can just keep choppin'.