Ryan Dunleavy

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Big Ten Network's pregame show at Rutgers on Sept. 13 will be the first on campus in its history

BTN rescheduled its day of 24 consecutive hours of Rutgers coverage from July 2 until TBD

BTN's deals with Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast puts it in more than 60 million homes

Rivarly games -- the long-term hope for Rutgers-Penn State -- draw big ratings on BTN

NEW BRUNSWICK –

The Big Ten Network has waited seven years to debut a remote college football pregame show from campus and it likely will only attempt it once this year, but the Rutgers-Penn State matchup Sept. 13 in Piscataway was just too enticing to delay the vision any longer.

Final details such as the lineup of guests on set and the Rutgers-affiliated broadcaster joining the three-person booth still are being finalized but BTN's smaller-scaled version of ESPN's wildly popular College Gameday will be set up outside High Point Solutions Stadium well in advance of the 8 p.m. kickoff. Why now?

"To try and again kick off that the Big Ten is here now," BTN President Mark Silverman said during a Wednesday luncheon with local media at Steakhouse 85. "This isn't a visit. This is part of the Big Ten territory."

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The expectation among Rutgers fans is for the game to be the first step in developing the kind of rivalry missing from the program's long history. Rutgers' top rivalry over the last decade was with Louisville, a series boosted by its annual national stage on a ESPN network on a Thursday or Friday from 2005-13.

"Networks help build rivalries and rivalries help build networks," Silverman said. "I think if we can help create and build a rivalry it's good for the schools, it's good for the conference and it's good for us. You can't manufacture them. I think Penn State now has two natural rivals in Rutgers and Maryland."

The Big Ten traditionally plays only on Saturdays – though Silverman acknowledged adding more gamedays would be good for television if the conference ever reconsidered its stance – so taking analysts out of the studio during a jammed schedule poses problems. Weather also is a consideration.

But Silverman said Trophy Games – like Minnesota-Wisconsin (Paul Bunyan's Axe) and Minnesota-Iowa (Floyd of Rosedale) – draw bigger ratings than other games. Rutgers could yet arrange one of those with Maryland and/or Penn State.

"In our seven years we've never brought our primary studio group out to a field to take advantage of that buzz," Silverman said. "We really feel like that game in particular is going to create a lot of excitement in the area. We want our guys who are going to cover it to feel that."

BTN, which now will be broadly distributed to more than 60 million homes nationally after striking recent deals with Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast, originally announced intentions to start drumming up Rutgers' excitement July 2 with 24 consecutive hours of airtime dedicated to the school.

But the plan – along with the plan to do the same July 1 for Maryland – since has hit a snag.

"Due to some difficulty in getting the (classic) games in house, 'Rutgers Day' is going to have to happen a little bit later in the summer," Silverman said. "I don't want to do a 'Rutgers Day' and not have the programming to rationalize it. And we don't own the game rights so it's just taking us longer than we anticipated to get those rights. There will be a 'Rutgers Day,' but it will not be July 2."

Until then, Rutgers fans will find other original programming, including the debut of a show designed to tap into the audiences for popular reality shows like Pawn Stars and Hoarders.

"We're actually going to do a Big Ten treasure hunter's show this year where a guy is going to drive around to different fans who have Big Ten memorabilia and see if they are going to want to sell it to this guy, who is a collector," Silverman said. "Maybe he'll buy some. Maybe he won't. Tune in and find out."

After then, Rutgers might not host a BTN-aired non-football event – soccer is the only sport where it is even a feasible option – until at least the winter season as the wiring at its other facilities gets upgraded.

"It's not like we're talking about reconstructing some of the buildings or anything like that," Silverman said in stressing Rutgers' challenges aren't unlike those faced by other league members when BTN was founded. "If you look at the numbers we're going to show more games from the RAC than anywhere else. That was a priority. There are still certain schools that we can't do certain events from seven years later."

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleav@gannett.com