Ah, yes. The Eastern-8. That was Gruninger's creation so that he would have a conference schedule playing in the about-to-be-opened RAC. It was a classic case of jumping the gun since he pulled together a conference that did not include RU's major bball rivals - Syracuse, St. John's, BC, and Georgetown. It did include PSU, WVU, and Pitt, along with Villanova, Duquesne, GW, and UMass. Because of that + the dream of an all-sports conference including football, RU stayed out of the BE when it was created 2 or 3 years later, with SU, SJU, and BC. That decision set Rutgers bball back for decades, deprived the university of millions of TV $$$. Gruninger kept tagging along with JoePa in pursuit of the dream, but that couldn't happen with SU, BC, and eventually Pitt in a non-football Big East. Gruninger's reward was PSU going off to the Big Ten, which IIRC, was announced in 1989, with competition beginning in 1992.
So, instead of RU in the BE, SHU became the NJ rep in the conference, instead of being relegated to the MAAC where it belonged. And fans at the RAC were "treated" to games against GW, Duquesne, UMass, and later, when the Eastern 8 morphed into the A-10, against URI, St. Bonnie's, St. Joe's, and, the only good new rival - Temple.
