There is something else that should be pointed out. When the most of the media writes about Rutgers they start with 1978, which is the year that FBS and FCS finally split to two different divisions for good.
The Ivy League schools there were considered "FBS" from 1978 to 1982. Until a NCAA rule change forced them to FCS.
However, it is important to note that Rutgers rarely had a losing season from the 1920's up until that point. Rutgers was a damn good small regional power for decades, which included two undefeated seasons, bowl invites (which were rejected) Heisman candidates, lots of All-Americans, AP rankings, CFB HOF inductees., etc.
Towards the end, our long standing rivals rarely could beat us anymore and the landscape for College football was changing to become more of a national game than a regional one.
While going undefeated in the 1960's got us ranked pretty high in the AP Poll, doing the same in the 1970's only got us invited to a low level bowl game, which was rejected.
Sadly, Rutgers botch the move up to FBS by only upgrading the schedule and nothing else. The whole AD was still run like it was the 1930's or something.
It was a wasted opportunity, had we invested, we would have joined the Big Ten with Penn State, IMHO.
It all worked out in the end at least.
