St. John's and St. Thomas were playing a football game at Allianz Field last weekend. During a stoppage, there was a press box discussion as to the challenge the Gophers would be facing that afternoon at Rutgers — namely, none.
Bob Sansevere was there from the St. Paul Pioneer Press and I said: "You're a New Jersey lad, Bob. You must have grown up a Rutgers fan?"
Sansevere would have been less offended if I had accused him of being a teenage shoplifter. "Nobody grew up a Rutgers fan," he said. "We lived an hour, 15 minutes from the school, and I never met a Rutgers fan."
Chip Scoggins was covering the Gophers for the Star Tribune last Saturday. He took an Uber from a Newark airport hotel to Rutgers, 15 minutes away. On arrival, the driver asked: "What campus is this?"
Andy Greder from the Pioneer Press was staying in Rahway, N.J., 18 miles from Rutgers. He was in a sports bar on Friday and asked to watch the Penn State-Michigan game.
Response: "We don't have the Big Ten Network."
Commissioner Jim Delany recruited Maryland and Rutgers to give the Big Ten an East Coast presence for future cable and satellite negotiations. They were lured in 2012 and started competing in 2014.
Maryland brought a tolerable résumé. Rutgers seemed silly then, and is a farce now.
