as is Louisville. In fact, no Big East eastern division team will travel as much as Rutgers next year. No, the Big East isn't being punitive at all.... Luckily, this could be good leverage in an upcoming lawsuit. It's also short-sited, considering that Boise could just as easily leave soon too, and the Big East is probably leaving money on the table by putting all of its eggs in the Boise basket.

Here's something interesting. The firm Public Policy Polling recently polled New Jersey residents on a variety of political issues. Also included in the poll were a number of sports-related questions, which also happen to be cross-tabbed to political factors. According to the poll, 35% of New Jerseyans support Rutgers athletics, vs. 65% do not. As that 65% ranges can mean virtually anything (and is probably just passive indifference in most cases), 35% of 8.8 million people gives you approximately 3.9 million fans in varying levels of support, which is nothing to sneeze at. As a basis of comparison, the Giants are at 37%, with significant showings for the Eagles and Jets as well. According to the poll, Rutgers fans lean left, with a somewhat higher percentage of Obama supporters following Rutgers than Romney supporters. Voters of all stripes support the move to the Big Ten conference, with respondents describing themselves as somewhat liberal showing the strongest support base for Rutgers athletics. Self-described moderates had the smallest amount of support, closely followed by strong conservatives. When it comes to political affiliation, Democrats also demonstrate a significantly higher level of support for Rutgers sports than Republicans. Where the poll really skews odd is on gender. Far more men than women support the move to the Big Ten, although women are largely reporting that they are unsure instead of being in opposition. However, according to the poll, a much higher percentage of females as opposed to males like Rutgers athletics, which seems rather unintuitive given common stereotypes about sports. Women slightly edge out Obama voters (who were a big majority in NJ this year) as a larger base of support. The poll really gets interesting when it comes to ethnicity. Whites (who constitute the largest ethnic group in New Jersey, although the state is far more diverse than most) are the most indifferent to Rutgers sports, followed by African Americans, "Other" (which is quite an odd label, given the state's large Asian population), and Hispanics. Indeed, the poll states that a majority of New Jersey Hispanics are Rutgers fans, which is the highest level of support in the poll from any single demographic group. A lot of these results seem somewhat strange, and the weirdest result of all may be when it comes to age. Supposedly Rutgers lags in support among young and the middle aged, while making up ground among the elderly. This is, quite frankly, completely contrary to all past reported data on the subject. The Rutgers fanbase skews very young, younger than most, owing to its history. You might be able to argue on the other points, but this specific data point makes me want to throw the whole thing out the window.

Reports out of practice today have the Rutgers coaching staff taking a look at a few possibly intriguing position changes for the 2013 season. Move number one is giving Marquis Wright a look at guard. This is probably long in the coming. The old staff was somewhat lukewarm on Wright at DT due to schematic reasons, seeing him as more of a guard, and liking Al Page more. Hopefully this means that Page is healthy, along with Daryl Stephenson, and that Jamil Pollard is ready to contribute next year. Wright to OG clears up the DT glut somewhat. It would also add another needed interior offensive lineman to the 2012 recruiting class. You've got Bujari, Lowery, Civil, Alexander, Osei, McBride, Nelson, and Arch, with Miller coming in. Eight guys for three spots isn't terrible, but there are a lot of seniors next year, and one of those guards could conceivably swing out to tackle. There, you've got Johnson, Lumpkin, Muller, Brodie, and Denman, along with Vicioso and Fonti, and any further recruits here or inside. Mike Larrow to TE is interesting. He was really good last season, but between recovering from an injury and his summer suspension, Larrow has barely played this year. There will be a lot more playing time open at DE in 2013 with Glaud and Booker leaving, but there are other guys ready to step up too. I think Larrow deserves another chance at DE, but moving some DE to TE to add depth there isn't the worst idea in the world. There will be Carrezola, Kroft, and two incoming freshmen, so you really need another body at the minimum. Lastly is the report that Jeremy Deering will get another look at safety. Rutgers was just loaded at WR this year, but Deering not getting more looks was just confounding every week. You figure Coleman and Pratt start next year, with Shuler, Carroo, and then the rest of the freshmen in the mix. Actually, I'd be a lot more comfortable with Deering staying at WR, but DB depth is definitely an issue too. Lorenzo Waters and Sheldon Royster are early favorites to start at S, but then there are a bunch of players who could end up at CB or S.

As pointed out on the boards this morning, a Sports Business Journal story today posits that the BTN has a way around the fact that they already are on the expanded tiers in much of the NYC and DC markets. Come 2014, the Big Ten may simply refuse to air Rutgers and Maryland games not picked up nationally anywhere on television in an effort to pressure local cable companies to cave, and carry the channels on a basic tier. This is nothing new for Rutgers fans, who were used as a pawn in the fight between ESPN and Cablevision over ESPN3 in 2010 and 2011. ESPN simply made all of its Rutgers games ESPN3 exclusives so that local regional sports network SNY could not pick up the Rutgers games, as it is normally apt to do. ESPN did not care that Comcast did already have the service. Bowing to furious Rutgers fans, Cablevision did finally cave this season, and now Rutgers football games are magically on SNY again.

That's the question Rutgers fans are asking after the school reportedly reserved a commitment from the hitherto-unknown prospect several days back. Crozier apparently is a 24-year old Australian punter, who also happens to be listed at 6'7, 240 pounds. Wow, there are about twelve things to dissect in that sentence. You assume he won't redshirt, but Crozier is going to be a 28-year old college player in theory. Rutgers already has a scholarship punter on the roster in Anthony DiPaula, and while many teams go with three scholarship punter/kickers, this commitment came somewhat as a surprise. Will he do kickoffs or anything else? Evaluating special teams specialists is notoriously difficult, so it's hard to analyze this beyond the notion that Rutgers thought it needed another punter.