Rutgers & The Big 10: Enough Is Enough
September 3, 2026. A day that will live in infamy for the Scarlet Knight faithful. It’s also the day the college football proclaimed, “enough.”
And it’s not just college football fans saying “enough is enough.” The frustrations of the 37-21 Rutgers loss to the UMass Minutemen made its way into the political sphere. On September 4, 2026, the New Jersey Assembly Republican Conference, @NJAssemblyGOP, posted on X (née Twitter) the financial strife tied to this loss and the taxpayers.
It gets more interesting when you see the responses to this “tweet” from social media pundits, some like user @corkyjonez sympathizing with a political rival.
When a conference like the Big 10 sees one of its members lose in a manner like this, it makes the conference as a whole look bad on the competitive front, especially in this new era of college sports. Instead of trying to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation worthwhile, the Big 10 needs to find a way to get Rutgers out of the conference. They had 13 years to figure it out, and there are more deserving schools to take their place in one of the top 2 conferences in the country.
Then again, the Big 10 has more to worry about than figuring out the Rutgers situation. Between scandals like the one-second clock (Michigan) and child abuse (Penn State), as well as Larry Nasser (Michigan State), Richard Strauss (Ohio State), Mel Tucker (Michigan State), and sign stealing (Michigan), just to name a few, worrying about how Greg Schiano coaches his team is the least of their concerns.
In 2014, Rutgers joined the Big 10 Conference after escaping from the implosion that was the original Big East Conference. Since joining, as a football program, they went 52-93 with a conference play record of 22-84. Their first year in the conference showed promise, going a combined 8-5 and winning the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl against the UNC Tar Heels. Since then, the Scarlet Knights only enjoyed two more winning seasons.
Yes, the Scarlet Knights during that span did make one of the more iconic bowl games, in comparison to others, the 2021 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. A 5-win team that season, they only qualified due to COVID-19 breakout amongst the original qualifying team, the Texas A&M Aggies, and a rankings systems calculated under the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate measures. So much math and medicals just to get trounced 38-10 by the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Other key highlights from their current tenure in the Big 10 include, but are not limited to, four shutout losses each in 2016 and 2019 seasons; and their defense allowing 35+ points in a game 52 times, posting a record of 3-49 in those games.
There were a number of humiliating moments for the Scarlet Knights football team since 2014, but nothing more humiliating than the October 8, 2016 contest at home against the Michigan Wolverines. After being blown out 58-0 by the Ohio State Buckeyes the week before, the defense allowed 11 touchdowns and 600 total yards in a 78-0 loss. For this game, a steakhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, specially Ruth’s Chris, ran a promotion giving diners a percentage discount on their food matching the margin of victory. Simple math of subtracting 78 from zero means that diners enjoyed a steak dinner at 78 percent off. Luckily, for Ruth’s Chris, they were able to find a way in their promotion to cap it at 50 percent.
From taxpayers to businesses on college campuses, this level of futility with such financial consequences is incomprehensible. But nothing crazier than head coach Greg Schiano’s contract, who is technically a public employee in the middle of a multi-million dollar contract that includes perks like a jet.
The 2026 college football season moves into week 2, where Rutgers will take on the Boston College Eagles at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. This is a program that has not been relevant in college football for some time. Confidence in this game is minimal at best.
Going back to the 3rd, if Rutgers had been in any other conference like the American Conference or Conference USA and then lose to UMass, a team that had lost 16 games in a row leading up to this date, then the school would not be getting the attention that it’s getting now. Enough is enough. Get Rutgers out of the Big 10 and move on.