30 Reasons for 30 Days - Day 20: Because we are in the Big Ten

From now through September 3rd, I am posting a daily reason why it is great to be a fan of Rutgers football. There are a lot more than thirty, but I picked my thirty reasons, and hope you like them. If not, be sure to let me know.

As a fan, I will never forget November 18, 2012. I did what I do most mornings, ate breakfast and had my laptop open reading different sites to catch up on Rutgers football and what had occurred the previous day. My usual sites at that time were On the Banks (of course), NJ.com, Scarlet Nation, Scarlet Report, App.com (I really liked Ryan Dunleavy’s pieces, which is why I started reading them), and ESPN.com.

Suddenly, I see a story which at first I thought was a hoax, written by Dana O’Neill, Brett Murphy, and Andy Katz. The headline, Maryland, Rutgers to the Big Ten? grabbed my attention. As I read it, I got more and more excited. Suddenly other sites started picking up on the news. I saw it on NJ.com in an article by Tom Luicci, and other sites like CBS Sports had it.

Finally, it was official, the Scarlet Knights were going into the Big Ten! In the conference realignment spectacle which had started in 2004, and accelerated in 2010, Rutgers was hands-down the biggest winner. As Steve Politi at the time stated, “The Scarlet Knights just wanted a lifeboat. They ended up on a Carnival cruise ship.” Also in the same article, about our entry into the conference:

"... it might be the most significant moment in sports for Rutgers since they invented the game." - Robert Boland, the chair of NYU’s Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management.

This change caused a feeding frenzy among the “talking heads” of the television and video world, as this video from the time shows:

Even after the next few rocky months turned into rocky years, Mr. Delany and the conference stuck by their original decision, and on July 1, 2014, we joined the B1G Boys (and women). How did the student body feel about it? It was overall very positive and exciting:

Two years later, it is now a much calmer landscape, as least as Rutgers and their fans are concerned. Why? Because we are now a part of the oldest, most successful and academically challenging conference, the Big Ten.

Today’s big reason it is great to be a Rutgers football fan is because of the Big Ten! We R