Semi OT: NYTimes on Rutgers Athletics

Submitted by ChalmersE on

The front page of today's NYTimes' Sports section has an article on the dumpster that is Rutgers in the B1G: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/sports/rutgers-university-athletic-d…

Among other things, program is running huge deficits, necessitating bank loans and diversion of money from student fees. Also the program was booked by the NCAA for using "ambassadors" who were found to have gone to recruits rooms. That seems to be working well. Not.

Rutgers officials didn't comment, but they did note in writing that things will get better next decade when they start getting more money from the B1G.  It also sounds like some of the faculty want out of the B1G.

MGoBoard

maizerayz

March 12th, 2017 at 1:08 PM ^

Yes absolutely. Just look at the quality of recruits we are getting vs before.

Coaches have mentioned before how powerful it is to tell a family that your son will have a game at home every two years, and I'm sure Michigan tells them Maryland is like a home game too.

Also kids growing up in Maryland and Jersey will just be more comfortable with the B1G.

I understand why folks hate Rutgers but honestly I'm perfectly fine with their addition.

Fine state school, great recruiting, decent academics, culture similar to the midwest, lots of eyeballs watching TV, pretty high average family income state, no pedogate scandal. They just need to get their shit together.

Joined: 05/05/2015

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oriental andrew

March 12th, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^

Rutgers is the largest university in the state and is well regarded. USNWR, for however much stock you give them, ranks then at 70 overall, just behind Purdue and Maryland (in the 60s) and just ahead of Minnesota (71) and msu, Indiana, Iowa (all in the 80s). comparable profile to other conference institutions.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Hard-Baughlls

March 12th, 2017 at 2:45 PM ^

Can't keep punishing North East Ohio Tech University State - Toledo for OSU's infractions.  Half the directional schools in Ohio would be shut down by now.

Joined: 09/28/2016

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Magnus

March 12th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^

Well, we know they'll lose that recruiting battle...

...to Trump University.

Okay, okay. No politics. You guys can go ahead and neg me. The setup was just too difficult for me to walk away from.

Kind of like a buffet.

Alright, I'll see myself out now...

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166009

M-Dog

March 12th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^

Me too.

Too easy. You gotta take that shot and let the chips fall where they may.

Like a 360 jam into unattended rim right in front of your face when the coach wants you to take time off the clock.  Sorry, you just gotta do it.

Bench, Bolivia, whatever.

 

 

Joined: 07/06/2008

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BeatIt

March 12th, 2017 at 9:31 AM ^

for the BIG it's like having a bye week in football and basketball. Back in the 70's and 80's they had pretty good basketball teams.

Joined: 06/11/2016

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mGrowOld

March 12th, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^

Back in the 70's we had Northwestern for the annual auto-win in football and basketball but those bastards decided to be good at stuff so we needed to replace them with somebody just as horrible as they used to be.

 

Joined: 10/04/2010

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Needs

March 12th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^

I know one of the people quoted in the article. Faculty critics are generally indifferent to the Big 10. They haven't seen membership as the problem, but they haven't seen benefits, either in terms of stabalinf the finances and management of the AD (a big selling point to the faculty at the time) or in terms of institutional collaboration (and Rutgers is already part of a NY metro consortium that includes Columbia, Princeton, NYU, CUNY, etc). But their critiques are more about the propriety of the AD drawing money from the general fund and having to rely on loans for normal operating expenses. A fair amount of faculty at Rutgers see big time athletics as bringing few of the benefits it does at other Big 10 schools while its expenses actively harm academics (decrease in % of tenure line hires, increasing numbers of adjunct faculty, stalls in levels of graduate funding, freeze in academic staff hiring). The connection of many of those issues to the AD are fairly tenuous, but Rutgers faculty also exist in an East Coast academic world where big time athletics are an anomaly. It's more about abandoning major college athletics than the Big Ten itself

Joined: 08/05/2008

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NittanyFan

March 12th, 2017 at 1:29 PM ^

and in that sense, their peers absolutely are Penn State, Maryland, Ohio State, Michigan State, et cetera (e.g., the rest of the Big Ten).  These ARE the types of schools that Rutgers should be "hanging out" with.

But unlike any other B1G school, Rutgers (and their faculty) exists in that East Coast academic world.

The 2 schools Rutgers has played most often in football are Lehigh and Lafayette.  It sounds crazy, but there are MANY Rutgers folk who wish their school was a member of the Patriot League.

Joined: 12/04/2012

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Wolfman

March 12th, 2017 at 2:48 PM ^

conference school, and I don't doubt what you write. However, reading their posts on the same subject matter, many write as if the feel it's a good school, the quickly add (non-ivy) as if to give the impression they consider themselves right behind them academically. They did write fondly,as you say about Lehigh, Lafayette and then added, we'd get our asses kicked by PSU but it was expected, so still fun. 

Joined: 07/23/2008

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NittanyFan

March 12th, 2017 at 3:51 PM ^

it may, however, take a generation --- the old folk who remember the "Middle Three Conference" and Rutgers' legitimate rivalries with Lehigh and Lafayette need to fade away. 

Lehigh & Lafayette are great schools, of course.  But not the ones Rutgers should be aspiring to athletically.  They should be aspiring to be like B1G schools.  I do think Rutgers' younger fans realize this.

On a tangent ...... one structural problem that does face Rutgers --- there are 210 Nielsen-defined media markets in the United States.  New Jersey, along with New Hampshire and Delaware, are the ONLY states that doesn't have one of those 210 DMAs centered in New Jersey.  New Jersey is split between the NYC and Philadelphia DMAs and it hurts their exposure.

Even smaller-market schools like Penn State and Iowa and Purdue have their own DMAs (Altoona/Johnstown ... Cedar Rapids/Iowa City ... West Lafayette).  They are the center of attention in those DMAs, and then of course they also get attention elsewhere in their states (Pittsburgh/Philadelphia ... Des Moines ... Indianapolis).  

Rutgers, because of the oddities of geography and media markets will never have that.

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Steve in PA

March 12th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^

With their proximity to NYC and the rest of the eastern US basketball hotbed there is no reason for their basketball team to be that bad.  There was a group of schools that couldn't compete at football but were very good at basketball.  They formed their own basketball-only conference, The Big East and won a national championship.

I think Rutgers should concentrate on basketball because they seem to have no focus and are doing nothing particularly well.  St Johns and Seton Hall are smaller schools with better results.  Villanova, Syracuse, and Providence are able to consistentily build teams with players from Rutgers' back yard.

Joined: 08/10/2009

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M-Dog

March 12th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^

If Rutgers was 60 miles further west, you would have never heard of them in connection with the Big Ten.  They have no redeeming merit whatsoever.

The Big Ten would have been better served to just start its own university in the New York City area than to bring Rutgers on board.

Maybe Columbia is still available.

 

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