Rutgers Football 2011: Another Weak Non-Conference Schedule Hurts Fan Interest

Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano has developed his own trademark: Play a weak non-conference schedule, win enough games to become bowl eligible and save your job.

Rutgers fans are getting hip to Schiano's self-serving method of scheduling non-conference opponents. 

Yesterday the Star Ledger's Tom Luicci reported that Rutgers will open the 2011 season with FCS opponent North Carolina Central.  This marks the second straight year Rutgers opens against a team from the MEAC conference.

Here's how the Schiano non-conference scheduling plan works in 2011: Play one team that has credibility as a formidable FBS opponent (North Carolina), play one team that should be a "W" (Navy),  play two of the worst FBS teams in the country (Army and Ohio University) and play an FCS team (North Carolina Central).

One Rutgers fan wrote, when it was revealed that North Carolina Central would be added to the 2011 schedule,  "I guess Kalamazoo Junior High School wasn't available."

With the high price of tickets to pay for the 2009 stadium expansion—a move that cost the school $120 million—Rutgers fans deserve to see some of the nation's power teams on the schedule.

Schiano's not fooling anyone anymore.  Since the "miracle year" of 2006, his program has been flopping backwards.

Since the 11-2 season in 2006, Rutgers' record against teams from BCS conferences has fallen to 14-18, and the five consecutive bowl appearances (2005-09) were against some of the worst opponents the bowl system has ever produced in some of the most meaningless bowl games ever played.

And it's not because of a lack of talent!

If a 2007 team which featured 20 players who made it to the NFL, including NFL superstars Ray Rice, Kenny Britt and Devin McCourty, could only go 3-4 in the Big East that year, there's something wrong with the coaching.

Even with the worst non-conference schedule in the country last year (Norfolk State, Tulane, Army, FIU, and North Carolina), Rutgers finished a disappointing 4-8 and failed to play in a bowl game.

Rutgers fans have heard the excuses like, "We can't schedule FBS teams because no one wants to play on the road," but they're getting fed up with the rhetoric.

Another fan writes, "Another awful schedule.  Not worth the money to buy season tickets again."

In 2009 Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti acknowledged that the schedule needed an upgrade and announced that future schedules included home-and-home series with Penn State, Miami and UCLA.

These are three quality teams but each game is scheduled for a seperate season. It appears that  Rutgers has no plans of getting away from the Schiano trademark of playing weak non-conference schedules.

Greg Schiano enters his 11th year as Rutgers head football coach and is still looking for his first Big East title.