Rutger, you do not belong here; you are not welcome here

Nothing in this article is hyperbole.

Many a diatribe has been written/spoken/commented on about Northwestern's non-conference schedule which can best be described as "junk." It currently checks in as 345th in strength of schedule according to KenPom and 334th according to the worse, but committee accepted, RPI.

Rutger ranks below darn near all of them.

Here are the 10 worst teams NU has played/will play this season according to KenPom rankings.

185: Fairfield
188: DePaul
282: Loyola Maryland
290: Sacred Heart

301: Rutger

310: New Orleans
313: UMass Lowell
323: SIU Edwardsville
341: Mississippi Valley State
343: Chicago State

Sacred Heart is an 11-17 team in the NEC, the worst conference in America.  Loyola Maryland is 9-19 in the Patriot League.  Rutger would not be favored to beat those teams on a neutral floor.

Y'all, Rutger University Basketball's best win so far this year is Fairleigh Dickinson. Fairleigh Dickinson is ranked 273 in KenPom.

Rutger has not won a game since December.

Rutger lost a game, at home, by 50 points.

Against Northwestern, Rutger will not even have its best player, freshman guard Corey Sanders. Sanders has both an awful haircut and replacement level Big Ten talent — which cannot be said about any other player on the Rutger roster.

Rutger is, objectively, in the midst of the worst season ever from a power conference team. It broke new ground for suckage by losing to Minnesota and dropping into the 300s of KenPom, the second power conference team to ever do so. The first team to run face first into that bar of awfulness was 2012 Utah, who has the perfectly acceptable excuse of being in a power conference for the first time in their history. That Utah team finished ranked 297, 4 spots ahead of 2016's iteration of Rutger.

If you can't tell, I am not a huge fan of Rutger.

But The State University of New Jersey is given vitriol at levels previously unseen in the history of this conference.  Even when people dump on Tom Crean, or Aaron Craft, or whatever, there's a degree of good natured ribbing present. It's like cracking jokes about your brother.  He is still family.

There is no good natured, familial aspect of this article, or any other article that takes opportunities to kick Rutger and Rutger fans straight in the groin.

Rutger does not belong here. Rutger is not one of us. Rutger is soulless.

There does not exist a single argument for adding Rutger to the brotherhood of the Big Ten Conference other than an unfounded belief that the Big Ten Network now has a foothold in New York. Rutger is not good at any sports. Rutger has one team NCAA Championship ever. In 1949. In fencing. Rutger is not anywhere near the geographic footprint of the Big Ten heartland. Rutger is not a culture fit.

Rutger is a constant reminder of the fact that all that matters in college sports is money.

Because of money, Indiana and Purdue only played once in basketball this year. Because of money, Illinois and Northwestern only played once. Because of money, Northwestern is going to beat a team in conference play and watch its own RPI tank. Because of money, a college football team (and presumably its fanbase) has to fly from Iowa City to Newark for a conference game.

Money has brought Rutger to our shore. It is our job to ridicule Rutger endlessly and pound Rutger by 30 on Saturday.