Results matter ...

[Pudge]

Rutgers athletics has been out of the spotlight for decades, and in a place like New Jersey, that means crooks and cronies are around to skim off the fruits of any success, and demoralize any decent people who happen to have landed in the neighborhood. But creepy crawly things flourish in dark places under rocks; when the rocks are pulled away and the light shined, they scatter. In the B1G the spotlight will be on Rutgers and I expect they'll start making an effort, if not for excellence, at least for competence. Heaven knows with their huge state population and media markets, they are a sleeping giant. Bare competence alone could bring them to the upper half of B1G football. The Rutgers addition will work out well for the B1G in the long run. It just may take a decade or two to complete a cultural makeover.

I feel similarly about the AAC basketball programs that got beat by 30 to 60 by Memphis, UConn, Cincinnati and mostly Louisville. There is a shellacking that most University presidents just can't fathom. These schools PUT money into Athletics - USF, UCF, Rutgers (yeah ... they got beat by 61), Houston and (unfortunately) the good Temple folks. I think change comes from this first year. Houston has Kelvin Sampson and that promises to be an upgrade. And Antigua. We shall see.