Why Temple football should replace Rutgers in the Big 10

The Temple University Football program has accomplished many great strides within the past couple of years. Coach Matt Rhule and his team has gotten the fan base not only excited for every game, but for what there is to come in the future.

In the American Athletic Conference, Temple achieved a record of 7-1 in 2015 and in the current 2016 season held the same record. The Owls are now preparing to play the Navy Midshipmen in the American Athletic Conference Championship.

Although the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights have been in the Big 10 since 2012 and had some success, their past two years have been basically the opposite of Temple.

They struggled in 2015 by finishing with a record of 1-7 in the Big 10, while this season brought them an even worse one of 0-9. Their team has been rocked by scandal after scandal with their results on the pitch made ever worse by their seemingly inability to stop their players getting arrested.

This season, Rutgers has been shut out by Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes , Michigan State Spartans and Penn State. Rutgers has been outscored 224-0; an average score of 56-0. They’ve had zero conference wins, losing to the second-worst team in the division, Michigan State in a 49-0 rout.

If you remove the 78-0 loss to Michigan, Rutgers has lost the other three games by an average of 48-0. When they played Michigan in early October, six players on the Wolverines individually had more yards than all of the Scarlet Knights put together.

Rutgers Football has even been called the ‘worst offense in modern team history‘ by a NJ.com reporter, who was not afraid to say this in the beginning of his article of the Scarlet Knights.

“I am so confident that Rutgers isn’t going to score for the fourth time in eight Big Ten games that I’m typing this at halftime. It is 9-0 Penn State. The Scarlet Knights have 66 total yards. You have no proof of this, but I have witnesses. Rutgers will not score.”

This tweet was even tweeted at a Rutgers game with their stadium empty of their fans. The only stat they’re leading the Big Ten in is punts from within their own half, hardly a badge of honor.

When you think of Philadelphia, you think of sports and you then think of television. Temple was willing to be a candidate for the Big 12 expansion a few months back and of course, the Big 12 is currently still very up in the air at this particular moment.

In an article by Philly.com, Temple Athletic director Patrick Kraft said one of the biggest misconceptions of Temple was our size and what we could contribute.

“A lot of people have this misconception that we are a small private institution,” he said. “We are at 38,000-plus and we would be the second largest in the Big 12 if we were to go.”

I am not a professional sports analyst, but I know that statistics can play a major role in regards to college football decisions and a good discussion never killed nobody.

In order to argue this, I asked a few Temple students and students from the Big 10 schools such as Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State about their opinions of Rutgers in their conference.

William Juppenlatz, Penn State

“Rutgers should be replaced by a more deserving school. They were added to the Big Ten because it was believed that Rutgers would bring the Big Ten more revenue and viewership from the New York City market. However Penn State dominates this market already. The University of Pittsburgh would be a deserving replacement. The one issue for Pitt is that they only add the Pittsburgh market and not much else, because of the dominance of Penn State and Ohio State in the region. The University of Pittsburgh would provide a number of higher quality sports teams. If Rutgers wants to stay in the Big Ten, their team and fans should conduct themselves with the level of class that is expected of the Big Ten.”

Remi Nicole Monaghan, Michigan State

“I don’t think that Rutgers should necessarily loose their spot but I do think that they should start adding some other schools maybe like Mizzo or Miami of Ohio. I think more schools just brings more competition to our conference and makes our athletes play better.”

Dan Smyth, Ohio State

“They had one bad season, but let’s not forget they have beaten Michigan before in football while a member of the Big 10. I think Michigan needs to go before Rutgers and last year they almost beat Michigan State but ended up losing by 3. They need to be given a chance you just can’t expect a team to be good over night. Purdue has been much worse:
2013:1-11
2014:3-9
2015:2-10
2016:3:9
At least Rutgers went 8-5 in 2014 in their first year in the Big 10.”

Cal Larsen, Wisconsin

“I think geographically having Rutgers in the conference makes zero sense, but you could say the same about Maryland. As a fan of a good team I don’t mind having Rutgers as a guaranteed W and who’s to say if they moved they’d get a better record because they wouldn’t be changing their system up at all, you know?

Every conference has powerhouses (Mich, OSU, UW) and weak teams and I think if anything were to happen we’d trade Rutgers for a different team that is doing really well in a conference not as powerful as the Big Ten. No way we’d just drop them completely. The Big Ten was just reorganized in 2014, however so it seems early to switch it up again. They’ll stay or be replaced, no way they just get dropped, but as a UW fan I don’t mind having them in the conference. If they leave it could be a slippery slope for other conferences too and maybe lead to a huge slip up. Also, Rutgers lost a few pretty close games it’s not like they lost 49-0 every game, only one!”

Matt Swann, Ohio State

“I say give em two more years and if they do shitty then boot em”

Madi Dettlinger, Michigan

“Personally, I don’t know a ton about football and I can still recognize that Rutgers is very clearly at the bottom of the Big Ten. It would probably be better both for them and the organization if the Scarlet Knights moved to a different conference. I’ve heard people pushing for UConn to enter the big ten which I think would be interesting to see.”

Carver Murphy, Penn State

“There are high school football teams that play better than Rutgers. I’d rather see them replaced by a team that can at least pretend to contend. Personally I think Pitt should be in the B1G so we can play them every year.”

Bobby Lesnik, Temple University

“Rutgers has a 0-9 record in the Big 10 this year. Philadelphia has one of the biggest television markets in the Northeast. So they would draw in more television revenue, which would make more money for the Big 10. That was Temple’s plea to get into the Big 12 too.”

(The 0-9 record of the Scarlet Knights is clearly not giving them the benefit of the doubt. I also did not even think about the mass amounts of money that would made, but it is true.)

Billy Maguire, Saint Joseph’s University

“Temple should replace Rutgers, their sports programs are going down hill. The AAC has also been a weak conference for a while now.”

Bruce Boyer, an alumni of Temple University

“The basketball team hasn’t had a winning record since 2005.”

I do not want to cast a bad light on Rutgers in any way since they are a historic football team with many accomplishments with their first ever intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869 against Princeton University that will forever be essential in origin of college football.

However, to Temple University Community and especially our football fans, the potential our Owls have is endless and this weekend we have a chance to win the AAC Championship game.

As Philly.com reports, there is some talk of schools joining in a football-only capacity, but with the Big 12’s specific model of what they wish to maintain among their schools, the question remains what will happen in the conference.

For argument’s sake, Temple University’s football team would pull off the best fight against any team because of our football players, marching band, Diamond Gems and cheerleaders–and let’s not forget about our energetic fans.