There are still many uncertainties with the proposed expansion of the Big Ten Conference. Who will get invitations? Who won’t? When will the actual vote happen?
But one thing is for sure. If a couple of tried-and-true Big Ten notables have their way, Rutgers will be one of the schools that will get the call.
“I think it has the potential to be a brilliant marriage,” former Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard said. “Getting a school like Rutgers, where Coach [Greg] Schiano has done such a good job, and to get the New York market along with it, would be tremendous for our conference.”
Howard, who won the 1991 Heisman Trophy with the Wolverines, was one of 14 former players and coaches to be announced as the 2010 class for the College Football Hall of Fame yesterday in Times Square. Barry Alvarez, former coach at Wisconsin and now the athletic director in Madison, was another.
“Rutgers, clearly, and Coach Schiano, are on a national level now,” he said. “He built a fence around New Jersey — and I should know, because New Jersey used to be one of my places to get talent — and the results are obvious now. They’d be a tremendous asset.”
The Scarlet Knights, who have been to five straight bowls and have won four consecutive, are among a host of schools — most notably, Missouri and Notre Dame — who may get invites to join the league and reap the benefits of its own television network, not to mention eligibility for more prominent bowls.
“Listen, when I played in the Big Ten, we played a lot of tough games, like Florida State and Notre Dame, and that was before we entered conference play,” Howard said. “Now, so many schools fill out that part of their schedule with creampuff games. That’s what I’d like to do away with. And if expansion does that for us, if Michigan gets to play a Rutgers instead of a creampuff, then I’m all for it.”
And, of course, there are logistical issues at play, as well. One of the reasons the Big Ten is so high on Rutgers, is because of the strong alumni bases that all the member schools have in New York.
“Everywhere you go around this area, you’ll find people who went to Big Ten schools,” Alvarez said. “Getting a chance to play here, at Rutgers, in front of them, would be a plus to all involved.”
And, from the Big Ten perspective, there clearly appears to be a respect level that has increased. As the Scarlet Knights continue to climb the national ladder and shed the lackluster reputation that plagued the program in the 1980s and 1990s, more people are noticing.
“What we did at Wisconsin and what Greg did at Rutgers are different situations, but there are some similarities,” said Alvarez, who won just one game in his first season with the Badgers. “For one, both programs were pretty bad. But that perception — like it did at Wisconsin — changed.”