Yeah, pretty nice. Rutgers would be a perfect school for hockey but let's be real. You can't even get enough money to support the athletics you currently have.
I would guess I could ask 10 people on the street about Rutgers and they wouldn't even know where it is located.
Wouldn't be surprised if what you said is true when it comes to football recognition and the way football makes schools household names.
Because even though Rutgers played the first intercollegiate
football game on Nov. 6, 1869 , RU never placed the same emphasis on its football program like PSU,OSU,MSU,Michigan and other schools did in an effort to be the best .
While those programs I mentioned were investing in their football programs ,the Rutgers administration gave RU FB minimum support and even was indifferent about going to the Rose Bowl (In 1961, Rutgers was considered a contender for the Rose Bowl , but was not selected because university president Mason Gross did not express interest with the Rose Bowl's organizers)
It wasn't until the late 1980s that Rutgers moved from mainly playing what now is
considered (D-1AA) FCS opponents and started scheduling (D-1A) FBS schools
and even then supported RU football like it was a D-1AA program .
Rutgers joined the Big East in 1995, but football didn't start to be funded properly until 2001.
So there is a reason why Rutgers isn't as well know as the PSU,OSU, USC , UCLA,Texas and Bama's. Even private schools like Miami and Syracuse had more support for their football programs from their administrations than the leadership of Rutgers University gave the RU FB program.
Name recognition suffered because of that and that's why you probably c could ask 10 people on the street about Rutgers and they wouldn't even know where it is located.
But if RU followed up the Louisville win in 2006 and kept in the top 10-25 from that game to the present, just about all 10 of those people you would ask could draw a map to where Rutgers is located.
That said: it's RU FB's fault for not building recognition after the Louisville game in 06 by not playing like a top team on a constant bases after that game and Rutgers lost the chance to be recognized as one of the top FB programs.
Because RU FB didn't take advantage of the opportunity and publicity that game in 06 gave the Scarlet Knights a lack of name recognition is the result