Rutgers University - Athletics

Athletics

(Note: The Rutgers-Camden athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raptors. The Rutgers-Newark athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raiders. The Scarlet Raiders and the Scarlet Raptors both compete within NCAA Division III.)

Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included Yale University, Columbia University and long-time rival, Princeton University (then called The College of New Jersey). The four schools met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan on October 19, 1873 to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate competition, and particularly to codify the new game of football. Though invited, Harvard chose not to attend. In the early years of intercollegiate athletics, the circle of schools that participated in these athletic events were located solely in the American Northeast. However, by the turn of the 19th to 20th century, colleges and universities across the United States began to participate.

In 1864, rowing became the first organized sport at Rutgers. Six mile races were held on the Raritan River among six-oared boats. In 1870, Rutgers held its first intercollegiate competition, against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard, the then top-ranked amateur crew of the time.

Since the start in 1864, Rutgers has built a strong crew program consisting of heavyweight and lightweight men. Women's crew was added to the program in 1974. Financial support of the Men's crew program was discontinued by the university in 2006, though the Crew continues to compete (funded entirely by Alumni and private support) at a high level in the prestigious Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges conference.

The first intercollegiate athletic event at Rutgers was a baseball game on May 2, 1866 against Princeton in which they suffered a 40-2 loss.

Rutgers University is often referred to as The Birthplace of College Football as the first intercollegiate football game was held on College Field between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1869 in New Brunswick, New Jersey on a plot of ground where the present-day College Avenue Gymnasium now stands. Rutgers won the game, with a score of 6 runs to Princeton's 4. According to Parke H. Davis, the 1869 Rutgers football team shared the national title with Princeton. (This game is believed to have been closer to soccer than to modern American football.)

Since 1866, Rutgers remained unaffiliated with any formal athletic conference and was classified as "independent". From 1946 to 1951, the university was a member of the Middle Three Conference, and from 1958 to 1961, was a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference. In 1978, Rutgers became a member of the Atlantic 10 conference. In 1991, it joined the Big East Conference for football. All sports programs at Rutgers subsequently became affiliated with the Big East in 1995.

The first intercollegiate competition in Ultimate Frisbee (now called simply "Ultimate") was held between students from Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1972 to mark the one hundred third anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers won 29–27. The Rutgers Men's Basketball Team was among the "Final Four" and ended the 1976 season ranked fourth in the United States, after an 86–70 loss against the University of Michigan in the semifinals, and a 106–92 loss against UCLA in the consolation round of the 1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

Since 1991, Rutgers is a member of the Big East Conference, a collegiate athletic conference consisting of 16 colleges and universities from the East Coast and Midwestern regions of the United States. The Big East Conference is a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Rutgers currently fields 27 intercollegiate sports programs and is a Division I school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Rutgers fields thirty teams in NCAA Division I sanctioned sports, including Football, Baseball, Basketball, Crew, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track and Field, Swimming and Diving, Wrestling, Volleyball.

Since joining the Big East, the Scarlet Knights have won five Big East Conference tournament titles: men's soccer (1997), men's track & field (2005), baseball (2000, 2007), women's basketball (2007). Several other teams have won regular season titles but failed to win the conference's championship tournament.

Most recently, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' football team has achieved success on the gridiron after several years of losing seasons, being invited to the Insight Bowl on December 27, 2005 in which they lost 45 to 40 against Arizona State University. This was Rutgers' first bowl appearance since the December 16, 1978 loss against Arizona State, 34–18, at the Garden State Bowl. The 2006 football season also saw Rutgers being ranked within the Top 25 teams in major college football polls. After the November 9, 2006 victory over the #3 ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals, Rutgers jumped up to seventh in the AP Poll, eighth in the USA Today/Coaches poll, seventh in the Harris Interactive Poll, and sixth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings. These were Rutgers' highest rankings in the football polls since they were ranked fifteenth in 1961. Rutgers ended the season 11–2 after winning the inaugural Texas Bowl on December 28, 2006, defeating the Wildcats of Kansas State University by a score of 37–10 and finishing the season ranked twelfth in the final Associated Press poll of sportswriters, the team's highest season-ending ranking.

Under Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer, the Women's Basketball program is among the elite programs in the country as they remain consistently ranked in the Top 25, consistently making the NCAA Women's Championship Tournament, and sometimes winning the Big East regular season championship. In 2006-2007, Rutgers won their first ever Big East Conference Tournament Championship. The program has been highly competitive since its inception, winning the 1982 AIAW National Championship, reaching the 2000 Final Four, and reaching the Final Four and national championship game in 2007.

Rutgers maintains athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. The university has historic rivalries with Princeton University, Columbia University (formerly King's College), Lafayette College, Lehigh University and New York University originating from the early days of college football. While they maintain this rivalry in other sports, neither of them have met in football since 1980. Rutgers has a basketball rivalry with Seton Hall University, and has developed a growing three-way rivalry with the University of Connecticut and Syracuse University, both fellow Big East Conference members.

In the fall of 2007, six Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway's NCAA Division I sports were discontinued by the University, including men's swimming and diving, men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, men's tennis, and men's and women's fencing. Some continued as club teams, while some were disbanded completely. The University claims this change was due to budget cuts, while others claim it was a politically motivated move designed to protest state's funding changes.

In November 2012, Rutgers became the latest school to leave the Big East. Syracuse and Pittsburgh have decided to enter the Atlantic Coast Conference, as West Virginia will enter the Big 12 conference, taking effect as of the 2012-2013 season. Rutgers decided to leave the Big East for the Big Ten Conference at a date which has yet to be announced.