Rutgers has always had an over inflated opinion of its academic prowess.

They are the best Public University in N.J.
Problem is,most of N.J.'s Public Universities are just expanded teachers' colleges.
In fact many if the colleges just recently gained university status.
Of course that also meant N.J. "bending" some rules as to what constituted a university.
So,for years,Rutgers really had no competition.
Now some other Public Universities,are making strides academically and are either cheaper or more conveniently located the RU.

A few years ago N.J. merged several academic institutions into Rutgers,including giving them a medical school.
According to press reports,this done in large part to make the school more "attractive",academically to the B1G.

Problem is,the merger came with a lot more debt that RU has to deal with,while trying to spend a lot more money on athletics.

If one chose to move "up" to the Big 12 from the AAC, it would be because the $$$ that come with Big 12 membership far exceeds that with the AAC. On a side not, here we sit in the MAC East which is basically the toilet bowl of FBS/D-1A football. Sorry, I just needed to throw that in.

First, you're only citing this season in football. They've had some past years when they weren't pathetic. Granted, not as many good years as the B1G, SEC, and to a lesser extent, the PAC 12 and ACC.

On the last part of your thought, this is EXACTLY WHY I think it's in the best interest of several of the schools in this discussion to push to create their own league with a "P" status. This would be including all the schools in the Big 12 not named Oklahoma and Texas, along with UC, BYU, Boise, Memphis, UConn, Houston, etc. There are enough schools in the mix that are more than capable of winning games at a "P" level. At the rate things are going, ESPN and Fox are going to be looking for programming slots to fill when/if the Big12 collapses. It just makes sense to me that if the Big 12 doesn't want to play ball on expansion, that the next step is to work on a TV deal, and steal interested teams from their league, among others. If nothing else, publicly taking steps towards that puts the pressure on the Big 12 to (crap) or get off the pot, and could push them into action. Either way, just waiting for the Big 12 isn't a good move.

Here's a piece, to GoCats credit, from Twitter that adds to the conversation and blunders of the situation. Texas and Oklahoma are probably going to end up in the SEC, either in 2024, or sooner by forcing their way out.

http://www.burntorangenation.com/2016/10/25/13403682/espn...

Yes sir. And this is exactly why I think the MAC offices need to take a hard look at where they stand right now and push for some type of expansion. It sounds silly, but the MAC standing pat from the beginning has made them the most stable when compared to the AAC and C-USA. No way they'll be granted "p" status, but at least do something to make yourself more attractive to TV.

In my perfect world, the MAC offers WKU and Marshall. Bringing those two in make the MAC handfuls better than what it is now.

If you wanted to get really crazy, offer Cincinnati and Memphis. Tell them they'll be the banner carriers for the league. That ain't ever gonna happen though.