Let's be clear on this from the start: This is not a second guess. Back in November 2012, Jim Delany could have demanded anything from Rutgers officials and they would have agreed with a smile -- and understandably so.

Delany: "We'll accept you into the Big Ten, but only if you change the name of the university to Jim Delany's Awesome Intergalactic Starfleet Academy and speak nothing but Vulcan."

Rutgers: "Fan-vel du aitlun, khart-lan!"

The longtime Big Ten commissioner is a master dealmaker, and during those negotiations, he had all the leverage. Any deal to get out of the American Athletic Conference and into the nation's premier conference, especially when it looked like the music would stop in the conference realignment game without the Scarlet Knights finding a chair, was one that they had to take.

As I wrote back then: Rutgers just wanted a lifeboat and ended up on a Carnival cruise ship.

Still, four and a half years later, it is impossible not to look at the financial details and not conclude that Delany gave Rutgers a lousy deal -- and it's one that is making it harder for Rutgers to build the infrastructure necessary to truly compete in its new league.

Big Ten rival Michigan revealed this week that, thanks to the league's new TV contract, it is expecting a payout of $51.1 million from the conference in 2017-18. That is the same chunk of cash that Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois and the rest will add to their coffers.

But not Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are projected to get just $11.6 million. As the athletic department races to build the facilities needed to compete in the conference, it will receive just one-fifth of the revenue that its well-heeled rivals are banking.

That will change in the coming years, of course. Rutgers will get $14.9 million in 2018-19 and $19.3 million in 2019-20, and then -- finally -- it will get a full share of that revenue pie in 2020-21.

All will be forgotten then. But if that projected $51.1 million payout stays the same the next three years, the 11 established conference members (not counting other relative newcomers Maryland and Nebraska) will have pocketed $177 million more over the six-year transitional period than Rutgers.

Given that the league's new $2.64 billion TV deal probably doesn't happen without the foothold in the New York market that Rutgers gave the Big Ten Network, you could argue that the 78-0 loss to Michigan is not the most lopsided result for the Scarlet Knights since joining the conference.

"In terms of the financial integration, there's the academic, there's the competitive, and there's the financial. And those deals were agreed upon at the time," Delany said last summer when asked about potentially renegotiating the deal. "They're all a little bit different (between Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska). Everybody was kept whole from where they came.

"But the deals that were negotiated were all negotiated on the basis of keep us whole, keep you whole, and after six years of being a member of the Big Ten, you'll then become a full financial member."

You have to hand it to Delany. As the critics were snickering about adding Rutgers, he was positioning the Big Ten to become richer and even more powerful as the college landscape shifted. He has earned every penny of a $20 million bonus he is set to receive -- which, of course, is more than Rutgers will get in any of the first six years in the league.

Rutgers is part of his fiefdom now, and in the long-term, the Scarlet Knights will reap the benefits of these massive paydays. For now, though, they're lining up against Michigan and Ohio State with one-fifth of the revenue from the league. At least Delany didn't demand to rename the place.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.