On Nov. 19, 2012, Rutgers and Maryland formally accepted somewhat surprising invitations to join the Big Ten conference.

On that day, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany looked like Julia Roberts marrying Lyle Lovett, and John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as a running mate. Nobody could quite see the attraction.

Not yet three years after a day that will live in Big Ten infamy, the Rutgers part of the expansion equation looks even worse than it did then. Far worse. Of all the realignment maneuvers of the past five years, adding the Scarlet Knights is liking signing up for a lifetime case of poison ivy rash.

View photos Rutgers has suspended Kyle Flood three games after he contacted a faculty member over a player's grade. (AP) More

This has been an absolute debacle.

Delany has done a lot of smart things in his long tenure as Big Ten commish. He added Penn State, which was a boon until the Sandusky scandal brought down Joe Paterno and sent the school through a painful period of crisis. He added Nebraska, and that has gone well. He helped create the Big Ten Network, which has been a revenue geyser. He has served the conference well.

But the Rutgers decision goes alongside decades of resistance to a football playoff as the two major splotches on Delany’s resume. He eventually bowed to public pressure and came around to the playoff concept. He might be well-served to evict the stumblebums from New Jersey next, before they can do further damage to the conference’s prestige and reputation.

No, that’s not really going to happen. At least now. Maybe after the next six fiascos in Piscataway.

The latest development was the university’s announcement Wednesday that it is suspending football coach Kyle Flood for the next three games. That’s after a university investigation showed he violated school policies and procedures by contacting and meeting with a professor in attempt to get a player’s grade changed – and get his eligiblity restored.

The president of Rutgers’ faculty union told NJ.com on Wednesday that the three-game suspension is “a slap on the wrist.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

The Rutgers report shows the extent to which Flood went to avoid detection in his dealings with the professor: meeting off-campus; communicating only through private emails; and trying to swear others in the know about the grade-change scheme to secrecy. Not the actions of a man who says he simply didn’t know the rule about contacting a professor, and thus made an honest mistake. Nobody goes to those cloak-and-dagger lengths to keep something out of public view if they think they’re not doing something wrong.

The great cosmic joke of the whole situation is the fact that Flood stuck his neck out for a player who is no longer on the team – and not for academic reasons. Junior cornerback Nadir Barnwell was one of six players kicked off the team earlier this month after being charged with various crimes. Barnwell and three others are charged with assault, and two Scarlet Knights are charged with home invasions.

Five other players were suspended for the first half of the season opener for curfew violations. Among them was Rutgers’ best player, receiver Leonte Carroo, who this week was indefinitely suspended from the team following an arrest for an altercation outside the stadium after the Knights’ loss to Washington State on Saturday. Carroo was charged with simple assault in a domestic violence situation and has entered a plea of not guilty. According to a complaint filed in the case, Carroo allegedly slammed a woman into the concrete outside the football facility.

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