It's coming about a month late, but the day is finally coming up. Big Ten Network will air 24 hours of Rutgers-centric content to welcome our great university. Traditionally, BTN shows a collection of the best games in football and basketball for a particular school on its designated day. For Rutgers (and Maryland on July 31), the programming lineup includes a one-hour long special titled "The Big Ten Welcomes Rutgers." Also added to the Rutgers marathon is the always-excellent "15 Days of Spring," which, if you're like me, you have probably watched about eight times by now.
The football replays are bowl-heavy, with the 2006 Texas Bowl, 2008 Papajohns.com Bowl, and 2011 Pinstripe Bowl getting airtime. Only two non-postseason games are included, with the 2004 win against Michigan State and, of course, the 2006 Louisville game rounding out the gridiron footage. This could be due to difficulty securing rights for different games, but I feel BTN could have gone with other options for football, as this list shows. On the bouncy-roundball front, Rutgers gets one game for the hoops aficionados: the 2004 NIT Semifinal win against Iowa State (which gives the Cyclones two chances for exposure on BTN).
August 1 is a Friday, so this is a perfect chance for you to make good use of your summer-Fridays, although make sure you have one left for the day after the season opener (August 28). That game could go late, folks.