bluesox Wrote:Yeah, miami was a lock for team 10 in the acc. Yet, rutgers always had potential for the ACC, so what if they sucked, that's good for the other school's, you got the flagship school of NJ + you could argue that puts the ACC in the NYC and philly market. I would have rolled out miami, va tech, and rutgers.
As someone above noted...back in 2003...even though RU joined the Big East back in 1991...they were almost irrelevant in football and basketball map.
RU's football program started in 1869 (played in 1st real collegiate football game ever) and by 2003...they never went to a Bowl Game outside of the State of NJ in their 134 year history. (Played in the inaugural Garden State Bowl in 1978 in Cherry Hill, NJ as that bowl game died after their 1981 game).
In 2003...RU was finishing their 11th straight non-winning season.
From 1981-2003, RU had only 5 winning seasons.
RU Hoops went to the Final Four in 1976 with Ron Sellers...but hadn't done much of anything in the Big East.
The media in NYC and Philly didn't really push RU much at all at that time.
Obviously, starting in 2004 and especially 2005...Schiano caused an "EARTHQUAKE" of support in NJ/NYC...as hundreds of thousands of RU alumni finally had something to cheer about again and as they say, the rest is history.
The football world looked different for some teams back in 2003 as to where they are today...and obviously, RU is one of them.
In 4-5 years...RU went from not being on the ACC Board for Expansion to a possible Big 10 candidate (maybe a long-shot at worst, but still a potential candidate).
With the right leadership, with INVESTING in facilities, a program can turn it around...just like RU.