Rutgers is latest to jump to Big Ten

Associated Press

PISCATAWAY, N.J.

As the Big East was being picked apart, Rutgers was looking for a way out and a new place to show off a football program that has been resurrected in the past decade.

Not only did Rutgers find that escape hatch, the Scarlet Knights ended up in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in college sports.

Rutgers joined the Big Ten on Tuesday, leaving the Big East behind and cashing in on the school’s investment in a football team that only 10 years ago seemed incapable of competing at the highest level.

The move follows Maryland’s announcement a day earlier that it was heading to the Big Ten in 2014. The additions give the Big Ten 14 schools and a presence in lucrative East Coast markets.

Rutgers announced its decision Tuesday at a campus news conference attended by Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, Rutgers President Robert Barchi and athletic director Tim Pernetti.

“The Big Ten is really where Rutgers belongs,” Barchi said. “This is not just a good fit for us athletically, it’s a good fit for us academically and as an institution.”

Rutgers has been competing in the Big East since 1991. But the league has been torn up by conference realignment, losing three key members last year.

Pernetti had insisted all along that Rutgers would land on its feet, that being a member of the prestigious American Association of Universities and residing in the largest media market in the country would ensure the school wouldn’t be cast aside as the landscape of college sports changed.

The Scarlet Knights landed in the best possible spot. A spot that seemed unthinkable a decade ago when Rutgers football was a Big East cellar-dweller.

“It’s a transformative day for Rutgers University, and transformative in so many ways,” Pernetti said.