Fishy did not call them "hayseeds" for no reason.
Yes, we really don't deserve to be a part of the big ten based on our athletic pedigree. And frankly all the events that occurred after Nov 2012 is a pretty big black eye to the big ten. I am sure they all have buyers remorse (I would be absolutely disgusted if I were in their shoes) but they are now stuck with the piece of turd that is our athletics programs. I guess we're now all hoping that with the watering of this turd with big ten money, something of tangible value and substance can grow and bloom from it. Only time will tell if this will occur.
I feel sorry for programs like UConn and Cincinnati that have achieved consistently at the highest level athletically yet are in an unstable athletic situation. In an ideal world Rutgers would be staying in the AAC or Patriot league and UConn would be in a power conference. Alas, life is not always fair.
We were accepted into the big ten because we can make them money with the BTN carriage fees by securing the Philly and NYC DMAs along with Michigan and PSU (RU, UM, PSU gives a formidable viewership block from Philly to NYC). Our academic profile with our medical school was also a nice bonus for the CIC. From an athletic standpoint we bring some history, tradition and accomplishments but nothing substantial. We have never funded all 27 sports at a 1a level. Even now our BB teams are funded very poorly since throughout the 2000s in order to get FB up to par in d1a we were constantly taking money from BB and putting it into FB.
Until 2000 there was no major athletic funding or focus at RU. This phenomena is relatively new since many still have a patriot league mentality. Until 2007 we used to carry around 32 sports. Until 2000, the goal of sports at Rutgers was not to win, it was to provide students with the greatest selection of sports possible and if we win great! But winning wasn't a priority (patriot/ivy league mentality). That's the reason why we only started playing a d1a schedule after 1980 (with little to no funding for most sports that has only started to change in the 2000s) and why we've consistently performed sub par in many sports for decades at a time. Like anything, if you don't care and don't put any effort into improve something, it likely won't ever improve over time.
Since 2000 we've started to build up our athletic programs from the ground up with very limited resources. Many of the plans for new facilites are in holding patterns due to lack of funds (this was the reason why most of the athletic funds were diverted to FB until around 2010 when Pernetti became AD). The road to building up our 27 athletic program will be long but we'll get there eventually (i'd say it should take another 10yrs with the big ten money rolling in).
But to get back to conference realignment, we lucked out based on our location and pull with the media when we are successful (#1 ratings of any CFB team on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and SNY in NYC DMA while playing teams like UofL, USF, WVU, Arkansas).
We don't deserve it, we were just lucky. That's the best way to put it.
Good luck with your athletics programs and hopefully UConn gets called up to a power conference soon.
