Rutgers Football: 3 reasons Big Ten should part ways with Scarlet Knights

1. Would forming a new conference make sense for Rutgers?

It might not be in Rutgers’ best interest to leave the Big Ten. It gets to be associated with some of the nation’s top football programs, such as Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan. It receives a significant distribution of media rights revenue as a conference member, though some of it is being borrowed over the next decade. And clearly, the Big Ten as a Power Five conference is a step up for a program that was either going to stay in the AAC or become Independent six years ago.

Though it seems a big far-fetched to see forming a new conference become a reality, Rutgers should consider its geography and its competitive capacity. If the Scarlet Knights joined a handful of Independent programs and invited a couple other competitive FCS schools, they would be in a better situation for their players, their fans, and the university as a whole.

This proposed East Coast-based conference could include current Independents UMass, Army, and Liberty, plus soon-to-be independent UConn. Maybe it could include a MAC geographic outlier like Buffalo. Throw in a FCS promotion from top-ranked teams like James Madison and Villanova, perhaps a promotion from C-USA and recent FBS newcomer Old Dominion, and you’re talking about a conference that makes sense for Rutgers both geographically and competitively.

This so-called “East Coast Conference,” with members Rutgers, UConn, UMass, Army, Liberty, Buffalo, Villanova, James Madison and Old Dominion, would comprise of nine teams that could play eight conference games each year. Two teams hail from New York state, one from New Jersey, one from Connecticut, one from Pennsylvania, one from Massachusetts, and three from Virginia.

For the Rutgers football program, a move like this makes more sense than the current status quo in the Big Ten.