Realigning

Remember last Friday, when TigerBlog talked about how Princeton and Rutgers will be renewing their rivalry in men's basketball after a 10-season absence. 

You don't have to wait until November 6, though, to see Princeton and Rutgers. In fact, you can do so three weeks from Friday. 

It'll be on that day that the Princeton men's soccer team takes on Rutgers in its season opener. Rutgers will be playing its third game, as that's how the schedule always works for the Ivy League schools.

Princeton and Rutgers have met in men's soccer 59 times but only once since 2017, and that was two seasons ago. The first meeting was back on Nov. 20, 1951, and the Tigers lead the all-time series 28-22-9.

The Princeton-Rutgers rivalry is a natural one. The schools are separated by 20 minutes, which makes getting back and forth easy. They are two of the nine pre-Colonial colleges in the United States, along with William & Mary and every other Ivy other than Cornell.

Their history includes the first college football game ever, back in 1869, and great traditions across almost all sports. Perhaps TB will calculate the all-time win-loss record for the overall series, which he suspects will heavily favor Princeton (why else would he do it?). 

TigerBlog's friend Corey is a Rutgers grad. He's had football season tickets for decades, and he is even planning to go right from Newark Airport after a week in Europe to a Rutgers football game next month.

He and TB had lunch last week, and TB arrived first. When he told the server that he was meeting someone there, he was asked "is that him" as he pointed to someone sitting by himself at another table. When TB said it was not, the server asked him "are you sure?"

Was he sure? TB thought to himself, well, he's known Corey for roughly 55 years, so yes, he's pretty sure. Instead of saying that, he simply said "yes."

When Corey did walk in, he was wearing a "Princeton Athletics" golf shirt that TB had given him one point. It was a good look for him. 

When TB told him about the Princeton-Rutgers men's basketball game this November, Corey's response was an excited one. He will not, however, wear the Princeton shirt.

At one point, Princeton and Rutgers saw their athletic paths diverge, as Princeton became a member of the Ivy League while Rutgers has played in the Eastern Eight, the Atlantic 10, the Big East and now the Big Ten.

The news in college athletics this past week was obviously dominated by realignment. The Pac-12, a league that is twice as old as the Ivy League, essentially no longer exists as UCLA and USC had already announced they were leaving to join up with Rutgers, Colorado and then Arizona, Arizona State and Utah signed on with the Big 12 and lastly Oregon and Washington also decided that the Big Ten was the way to go. This latest round started when Texas and Oklahoma left the

You now have an 18-team Big Ten and a 16-team Big 12. In other words, 10+12 = 34.

As for what's left of the Pac-12, that would be Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State. Stanford? That's the school that routinely wins the Directors' Cup and has never finished lower than third. Cal is not quite Stanford when it comes to overall athletic success, but it's not that far behind.

And suddenly they're on the outside looking in? It's not over yet, by the way. Florida State wants out of the ACC. If the Seminoles go, it could be the next step towards what seems inevitable — that there will be two, maybe three, power leagues. The Power 5 is already down to Power 4, for now.

This is all driven, of course, by money, specifically football money. That Rutgers soccer will now have to fly across the country to play league games several times a year is hardly a concern. That traditional rivalries have been jettisoned without a second thought is also hardly a concern.

Will the end result of all this mean a reduction in the number of teams these schools can field? Will the travel costs overwhelm their budgets, even with the inflated TV money (Oregon and Washington won't get full Big Ten shares until 2032)?

Who knows.

For TigerBlog, it's just a reminder of why he's glad he's spent his entire career in the Ivy League. It's a league that had eight members when it began and has the same eight members today. It fields nationally competitive teams across the board. Its men's basketball champion (Princeton) beat the Pac-12's men's basketball champion (Arizona) in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. 

It isn't prone to the excesses that the Power Five leagues are. It's not desperately trying to become one of those leagues.

The Ivy League is what it is — and that is exactly what college sports were supposed to be all about.