It was announced yesterday by Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany that the composition of the Big Ten Conference was going to change.
Rutgers, a member since 2014, has been asked to leave the conference effective Jan. 1, 2019 and Yale will be joining the conference on that same date.
Rutgers has finished near the bottom in football, men’s and even women’s basketball since joining the conference.
The New Jersey school has suffered some humiliating defeats in football, including but are not limited to a 58-0 loss to Ohio State, 58-0, a 78-0 loss to Michigan and a 49-0 loss to Michigan State, just in 2016 alone.
Yale, on the other hand, is coming off of highly successful seasons in all three sports, highlighted by the 2017 Ivy championship.
“Yale is one of the founding fathers of football as we now know it under the tutelage of Walter Camp. More than a century later, coaches James Jones and Allison Guth are among the best on the hardwood as well.
“We tried our best with Rutgers,” Delany added. “But the situation there is nothing short of futile.”
Yale will now receive an annual $53 million payout from the Big Ten.
The Ivy League has already started to search for a new member, and both Colgate and Holy Cross are under consideration.
“Coming back to the Ivy League would be terrific,” current Holy Cross and former Princeton coach Bill Carmody said. “I’d especially look forward to playing Harvard twice a year.”