This is such an amusing thread. G-RUnit might have some good points, but if so, they get lost because he has his fact hopelessly wrong and he is imagining some conspiracy theory. He is being so obtuse in this thread, you have to consider that he is trolling.
Let's set the record straight on some of the facts:
- This game was not moved to MSG at the last minute. This game was originally scheduled in 2019 to be played in 2021 (https://dailytargum.com/article/2019/11/rutgers-basketball-big-ten-super-saturday-feature-2019) . Because the 2020-2021 season had no fan attendance due to covid, the MSG matchup was rescheduled to 2023. Then when the Knicks schedule was formed last summer, they had a game on the same day. So the Big Ten changed the location of this game to TBD, while they looked at alternate arenas and negotiated options with MSG. The result was the Big Ten game at noon and the NBA game in the evening.
- Rutgers was not forced into playing at MSG. When Rutgers and Maryland joined the Big Ten, the conference made a decision to have a greater east coast preference, including holding the Big Ten basketball tournament once in Washington, DC, and once in New York City. As part of the agreement with MSG to hold the 2018 basketball tournament there, the Big Ten agreed to holding 4 "Super Saturday" basketball-hockey double headers at MSG in 2016, 17, 18, and 19. Rutgers played in that original series once, and 7 other schools played basketball once in that original series.
The Big Ten and MSG decided to extend the series after 2019, and Rutgers requested more opportunities to play at MSG. At that time, Rutgers had just come off the 2018 Big Ten Tournament, where we had a huge advantage playing 35 miles from campus. Even though we were a 14 seed, we had huge fan turnout and won 2 games and played Purdue tough on Friday night. The exposure and support from that "Garden Statement" made Rutgers want to play more games at MSG. Therefore Rutgers was scheduled at a visiting team in 2020 and home team in 2021 (moved to this year).
- Rutgers has not been treated unfairly in Super Saturday matchups. The original 4 game series featured Penn St, Rutgers, Minn, and Maryland each as home teams, and Michigan, Wisc, OSU, and Illinois each as road teams. When Rutgers requested additional exposure at MSG, we were given Rutgers at Michigan in 2020 and MSU at Rutgers being played this year. While through this season Rutgers will have played 3 Super Saturday matchups (2 home and 1 away), that is because we requested more. Michigan has played 2 Super Saturday matchups (1 home and 1 away). The other teams have all played 1 matchup. I could argue that the teams that got screwed are Penn St, Minnesota, and Maryland, since they gave up home games and never got a road game in return.
Now, G-RUnit has a point that gets lost because he has his head so far up his ass. In years where Rutgers gives up a home game, like this year, playing a home game at MSG is a disadvantage. This year Rutgers has a long shot to win the regular season title and a reasonable chance to finish in the top-4 and get a double-bye. But that task becomes more difficult because we got screwed out of a win at OSU, and we give up our home-court RAC advantage for this game. The fact that this evens out over the long term is not relevant to the fact that it is a disadvantage this season.
But this point does get counterbalanced with the fact that as a neutral court, this probably ends up being a quad 1 game whereas it would probably be quad 2 at the RAC. While this would help us on Selection Sunday, it is not enough of an advantage to offset giving up a home game.
Nonetheless, Rutgers has requested additional exposure at MSG for Super Saturday. So we will be playing more games at MSG, presumably half as the home team and half as the road team. There are advantages to playing at MSG and disadvantages to playing there, both for the team and fans. At one game per year, or less, the advantages probably outweigh the disadvantages in the long term.
