Why We Watch: Supporting Rutgers Football

I can’t imagine the attendance was greater than 10,000 on that October day in 1996. Coming off a 4-7 record the previous season, now with a new Head Coach, and entering the game with an 0-6 record against D1 (now FBS) competition (the Knights beat D1-AA Villanova in the season-opener), it was much of the same for Rutgers football fans. It was just the 6^th year of the school’s Big East membership, following 28 years playing as an Independent (Rutgers had a short stint in the Middle Atlantic Conference from 1958-61), and attending a Rutgers game was more of a spontaneous decision on a sunny Saturday than a pre-planned commitment for most.