Can there be a rivalry without actual rivals? This is not just an existential question for our changing times in college sports. This is the reality at Rutgers and Seton Hall.

The two programs will meet for the 75th time in the Garden State Hardwood Classic on Saturday afternoon in Piscataway, and for most participants it will meet in the truest sense of the word when they step onto the court at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

You can almost imagine these pre-game conversations…

Hello, I’m Dylan.

Hello, I’m Chaunce.

So, uh, I guess we hate each other?

“It’s kind of funny,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said by phone Thursday. “I looked at their roster and thought, ‘They don’t have a lot of players that participated in the rivalry last year.’ Then I think, wait, when I think about it, We I don’t have anyone who participated in the rivalry last year!”

As a reminder, the number of participants who took part in the rivalry is three. Rutgers has one, sophomore Jamichael Davis. Seton Hall has two, in senior Dylan Addae-Wusu and sophomore Isaiah Coleman. And yes, the fact that the Pirates actually have more players familiar with the rivalry surprised even the head pirate himself.

“It’s weird, right?” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said in another phone interview. “I have (no) players from New Jersey on my team. That’s crazy. If you had asked me to talk to my boys about this rivalry before this week, they wouldn’t have known about it because no one is from here. But the rivalry means something to me as a coach.”

This is the backdrop for Saturday afternoon’s game. Rutgers needs a win to avoid a catastrophic loss that could end its realistic NCAA Tournament hopes. Seton Hall needs one to salvage a season that could be one of the worst in recent program history with losses to Fordham, Hofstra and (gulp) 1-10 Monmouth.

The game counts.

But look, we’re kidding ourselves if we think it means anything to players today as it did to their counterparts five, ten or 20 years ago. How could it be? Athletes are constantly on the move. Pikiell and Holloway agree the series should continue – and both said it should continue as long as they are coaches – but it’s likely the players will have to re-introduce themselves next winter.

“Every year the teams are put together,” said Pikiell. “That’s the direction we’re going with all this stuff. You just have to get used to it.”

On the other hand, the entire sport turned tradition on its head years ago. New Jersey is lucky that its best college rivalry didn’t go like Oklahoma-Nebraska. If you don’t think North Carolina and its new football coach Bill Belichick wouldn’t ditch their rivalry with Duke for a shot at some big TV money in another conference, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Rivalries are for the media. Rivalries are for the fans. Oh, it might mean something to star Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper, who grew up in New Jersey and watched his brother Ron Jr. play this game four times. But if his co-star Ace Bailey wasn’t dreaming of that turnpike ride while eating his favorite breakfast at Waffle House in Georgia, he’ll be the exception.

“I want to keep this rivalry going until I’m dead, but unfortunately my life gets shorter and shorter every year,” Pikiell joked. “I think it’s good for New Jersey.”

Pikiell can breathe a little easier after a four-point win over Penn State on Tuesday night. He said the trip to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival, with major games against Alabama, Texas A&M and Notre Dame, was too much and too soon for his team to be necessary to feed the NIL collective that pays the players. The multi-million dollar amount from this event is undoubtedly cash that Holloway would have wanted.

The Pirates’ problem isn’t just that they suffered the embarrassing loss to Monmouth two weeks ago at the Prudential Center, the program’s first loss to the Hawks in 16 games. It’s that Seton Hall seems dangerously close Become Monmouth, a feeder program for teams with larger budgets that is nationally irrelevant.

Weeks after a satisfying NIT championship last season, Holloway watched his entire roster scatter in search of NIL paydays. The man who orchestrated St. Peter’s Miracle run to the Elite Eight in 2022 finally has a state-of-the-art practice facility in South Orange, but few players care about this stuff anymore. They want to get paid.

“You know, I have to be careful how I answer that,” Holloway said when asked about the team-building resources — i.e. player salaries — at his disposal. “I have to use what I have and make the most of it. I never said it would be easy.”

Holloway’s team has to do their best to upset Pikiell’s team, but when Rutgers and Seton Hall meet, strange things start to happen. Maybe this rivalry will surprise us again after they meet (literally) this time.

MORE FROM STEVE POLITI:

How Rutgers AD Patrick Hobbs’ nine-year reign came to a chaotic end

New Jersey gymnast Livvy Dunne is leading a revolution in college sports

How a former Rutgers athlete was charged with murder in Tijuana

I was an overwhelming threat to Little League – and it’s time to come clean

The search for Luther Wright, once New Jersey’s greatest basketball talent

I played Augusta National and experienced my own Masters meltdown

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Steve Politi can be reached at [email protected].