NCAA Football: Temple at Rutgers

The Big Ten Network plans to be on campus plenty to capture the atmosphere in Piscataway during Rutgers' first season in the conference.

(Jim O'Connor/USA Today Sports)

NEW YORK – Mark Silverman has a vision of what the night of Sept. 13 will look like on his television network, and for Rutgers fans, it will be the definition of must-see TV.

He sees a studio set somewhere outside High Point Solutions Stadium with thousands of screaming and sign-waving Rutgers fans in the background. He sees an analyst with ties to Rutgers in the booth and a few prominent Rutgers alums making appearances on the set.

Then, of course, he sees Rutgers-Penn State – a game that Silverman, the president of the Big Ten Network, wants to give special treatment to kickoff the 2014 season for the conference.

“It’s a big game,” Silverman told The Star-Ledger on Monday, “and I want to make sure we can do it big.”

The logistics are still a work in progress, but Silverman is certain of this: He confirmed that his network has reached deals with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision for broad distribution to their millions of homes in the market. He said he was also optimistic that a deal with Comcast, the third cable giant in the area, would be reached before the season.

This, if proven true, might be the best news Rutgers has gotten in a while. Gone would be the threat of a protracted dispute, which many TV experts believed to be inevitable, over cable fees that would have dampened the excitement over the Big Ten introduction and kept thousands of fans from being able to watch at home.

Silverman would not discuss the terms of the agreements with Time Warner or Cablevision, except to say that they would likely go into effect in late August. But in an hour-long interview in Manhattan on Monday, he made it clear that Rutgers and fellow newcomer Maryland would have an increased presence on the network during their inaugural season.

Put it this way: Rutgers might be greeted with skepticism or scorn in some Big Ten towns, but the man making decisions for the TV network sees nothing but opportunity and excitement.

“It is our number one priority this year to integrate Rutgers and Maryland into the Big Ten Network and make high-quality programming for both schools,” Silverman said, so there will be no easing Rutgers into the mix.

The Big Ten Network, of course, is the definition of niche programming. If you’re not interested in Penn State wrestling or Minnesota basketball, then you probably won’t be setting your DVR.

But it could be game changer for Rutgers, and this is about more than just the pile of cash – a reported $44.5 million per school starting in 2017-18, according to one report – that Rutgers will begin receiving from the league in 2020-21.

This is about eyeballs, about the benefit to the Rutgers brand, about reaching an audience well beyond the New Jersey state line.

“There will be an exposure nationally that Rutgers has never before experienced,” Silverman said. We have over four million subscribers in California. We have over two million subscribers in Texas and Florida. This is a national network that is available everywhere.

“More people will know about Rutgers, and we aim to show more than just the athletics on our air.”

Silverman is clear, however, that his network will cover the bad with the good. It certainly isn't about to go looking for news stories that could tarnish one of the 14 universities that pay its bills. But it won't hide them, either.



"We've been there for Joe Paterno at Penn State," Silverman said. "We've been there for Jim Tressel at Ohio State. We don't want to overly pile on with our schools, but things happen that are not overly positive, and to be credible to our audience, we have to cover it."

Mostly, though, Rutgers will have an entire TV network dedicated to its nationwide promotion, which can’t be a bad thing. That will start on July 2, which will be “Rutgers Day” on BTN, and Silverman and his crew already have been in Piscataway to interview coaches for that.

Then, on Sept. 13, one of the biggest games in history will get the big-game treatment. It’ll be Rutgers-Penn State in primetime, the first time the Scarlet Knights play on the Big Ten Network. But certainly not the last.