Rutgers University
19
season ranked fourth in the United States, after an 86–70 loss against the University of Michigan in the semifinals, and a 106–92 loss against UCLA in the consolation round of the 1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.
Since 1991, Rutgers is a member of the Big East Conference, a collegiate athletic conference consisting of 16 colleges and universities from the East Coast and Midwestern regions of the United States. The Big East Conference is a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Rutgers currently fields 27 intercollegiate sports programs and is a Division I school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Rutgers fields thirty teams in NCAA Division I sanctioned sports, including Football, Baseball, Basketball, Crew, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track and Field, Swimming and Diving, Wrestling, Volleyball.
Since joining the Big East, the Scarlet Knights have won five Big East Conference tournament titles: men's soccer (1997), men's track & field (2005), baseball (2000, 2007), women's basketball (2007). Several other teams have won regular season titles but failed to win the conference's championship tournament.
Most recently, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' football team has achieved success on the gridiron after several years of losing seasons, being invited to the Insight Bowl on 27 December 2005 in which they lost 45 to 40 against Arizona State University. This was Rutgers' first bowl appearance since the 16 December 1978 loss against Arizona State, 34–18, at the Garden State Bowl.
The 2006 football season also saw Rutgers being ranked within the Top 25 teams in major college football polls. After the 9 November 2006 victory over the #3 ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals, Rutgers jumped up to seventh in the AP Poll, eighth in the USA Today/Coaches poll, seventh in the Harris Interactive Poll, and sixth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings. These were Rutgers' highest rankings in the football polls since they were ranked fifteenth in 1961. Rutgers ended the season 11–2 after winning the inaugural Texas Bowl on 28 December 2006, defeating the Wildcats of Kansas State University by a score of 37–10 and finishing the season ranked twelfth in the final Associated Press poll of sportswriters, the team's highest season-ending ranking.
Under Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer, the Women's Basketball program is among the elite programs in the country as they remain consistently ranked in the Top 25, consistently making the NCAA Women's Championship Tournament, and sometimes winning the Big East regular season championship. In 2006-2007, Rutgers won their first ever Big East Conference Tournament Championship. The program has been highly competitive since its inception, winning the 1982 AIAW National Championship, reaching the 2000 Final Four, and reaching the Final Four and national championship game in 2007.
Rutgers maintains athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. The university has historic rivalries with Princeton University, Columbia University (formerly King's College), Lafayette College, Lehigh University and New York University originating from the early days of college football. While they