Rutgers said yesterday that they had a 99% renewal rate for season tickets, with the waiting list for new season tickets now over 11,000. It’s exciting to see how much interest in the football program has grown and makes the expansion project an even better proposition.
Rutgers said no to Notre Dame last week about a potential Rutgers – Notre Dame six game football series, due to the location and ticket sales arrangements that would be required.
“Rutgers entered discussions about a possible long-term series with
Notre Dame, but at the end of the day both schools could not agree
about the site of the games,” said Rutgers Director of Athletics Robert
E. Mulcahy III. “We feel Rutgers’ home games should be played
on-campus in Rutgers Stadium.”
Today the NY times had a great column on the situation, providing more context on why the series failed to materialize and how Rutgers refused to kowtow to the mighty Notre Dame.
You’re the lead story on CNN’s website.
Ass.
Update: In case you haven’t seen or heard the clip, you can do so here.
The Rutgers press conference in response can be found here.
Updated again:
The other thing that has been amazing to me is the discussion on race that this has generated. It has been amazing to see people talking about a topic that is so often swept under the rug.
I read my Daily Targum articles yesterday and came upon an op-ed piece on Rutgers University President McCormick.
While I can understand the author’s complaint about the athletic department and the decision to cut six sports, he goes well beyond that in his vague remarks in the following sections:
Unfortunately, the letter missed the mark. They should have been directed, not to Mulcahy, but to the man responsible for the whole picture, University President Richard McCormick – someone who has severely disappointed many of us alumni who looked to his promises of making Rutgers an even better school.
…
However, those on campus, faculty and students, alike, have an obligation and greater role to play by keeping his feet to the fire daily until he either accepts the leadership role which has been proffered to, and accepted by him, or he offers his resignation in disgrace and in recognition of his unwillingness or inability to demonstrate true academic leadership and to do what is right.
Given that the author is a member of the Class of 1955, he may be forgiven for being somehwat out of touch. It is true that within the athletic department an emphasis has been placed on the visible, “revenue” sports of basketball and football over the “Olympic” sports of swimming & diving, fencing, etc. And while I may or may not agree with that decision, I have an issue with an article that vaguely acuses McCormick of not accepting the leadership role that he owns.
The President has staked his entire reputation at Rutgers on reorganizing undergraduate education and University services in order to no longer discriminate against members of various “colleges”, which truly existed in name only after the creation of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in 1982. He has invested a significant amount of his time, of the resources of the University, and the dedication of the members of the administration on undertaking this task so that undergraduates on New Brunswick will finally have a more seamless experience at Rutgers.
This has resulted in a complete overhaul of the University, from housing policies to student government to counseling services to admission and graduation requirements. Essentially all services with the exception, perhaps, of the academic departments, which were already reorganized in 1982, are impacted by the change in New Brunswick. To argue that President McCormick should accept the leadership role or resign is ridiculous, as this man has already done more in his short time at Rutgers to improve the University than the previous president did in his 10 years.
You may not agree with all his decisions, but you can’t tell me he’s not leading. If you do, it’s clear you’re just out of touch.
You have to love Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn women’s basketball team. After beating Marquette in a close game, he has these remarks on the fans.
It was a loss for Marquette, but a record home crowd of 4,000 was another sign that the Golden Eagles’ program is progressing.
“The crowd really lifted us and carried us,” Mitchell said.
Auriemma complemented the rowdy Marquette fans — sort of, anyway. The coach deadpanned that he couldn’t believe some of the things fans were yelling near the Connecticut bench.
“I’m losing faith in the Catholic education,” Auriemma said. “I know it’s Milwaukee, and people drink a lot.”
But, Auriemma, added, the crowd could “never be worse” than the fans at Rutgers.
“Rutgers fans, they’re just born miserable and they stay miserable all their life,” Auriemma said.
Don’t worry Geno. We don’t obsess over you like you clearly do about us.
I’m sick and tired of hearing all the analysis on the Rutgers sports cutting that’s just plain wrong. The Athletic Director has made his logic pretty straightforward, and the budget cuts are the secondary reason, not the primary. They were merely the opportunity he needed.
Seriously, another example of someone who’s missing the boat was found in the Opinions section of the Daily Targum.
Their argument is as follows: New Jersey is facing an enormous fiscal problem – a $4 billion deficit – and a taxpayer revolt, for which no solution is currently visible. Support for Rutgers has never been enthusiastic in the Legislature, and tuition has been rising steadily for the past seven years. Last year’s budget cuts resulted in widespread layoffs, course cancellations and a freeze on hiring. The prospects for the future look grim, and the total amount of money coming to the University from all sources is finite. Beyond these facts, there is a basic assumption about the role of the University in New Jersey.
The real reason for the cuts is that Rutgers had 30 Division 1A sports, which put Rutgers significantly above the average size of a Division 1A athletic department around the country. Combine that with the fact that of the three programs that had 30 sports, Rutgers had the smallest budget, $38 million, vs. $60 million and $100 million at other schools. The end result is that ALL the sports programs were being shortchanged by competing for scarce resources.
The budget cuts merely highlighted the fact that the athletic department would only be receiving limited, targeted funding increases in the next few years. Given the overall cuts to the University, Rutgers athletic budget was not about to double in the next few years to make up the funding gap with other peer insitutions. Hence, some sports were cut to try to fund all the remaining sports.
Yes, as I said, some sports will receive increased funding (i.e. football). However, within any space, if your ability to acquire external funding is limited at best, you have to maximize your ability to produce internal growth. Of all the sports in the mix at Rutgers, only three have any shot of being revenue generators, specifically football, and men’s and women’s basketball.
Granted, these are also among the most costly programs to run. And they cost even more money to run well enough to have a chance to achieve the success required to produce a positive return. So, while other sports are being cut, an investment is being made in to the revenue generating sports with the idea that at a minimum they can become self-sufficient and in a best case scenario begin producing a return that will help increase the overall atheltic budget, benefiting all programs.
I don’t pretend to know if this scenario will turn out to be true. I have seen plenty of ink spilled on the idea that very few atheltic programs have revenue-positive basketball and football programs, and I don’t know if Rutgers will prove to be an exception. I do know, however, that the budget cuts were simply not the primary cause of these cuts, even if they were the opportunity. And if you want to get them back, you need to understand this fundamental idea. Simply offering up the funding alone won’t get the job done, because it’s not really about money in the short term.
“I figured I’d better get it in before we waited another 10 years,” he said after turning it in Friday with the $171.32 check. “Fifty-seven years would be embarrassing.”
Because showing up after 47 years is so much better than 57.
My Texas Bowl story actually begins in Scottsdale. I was there the two days before the Texas Bowl, enjoying some warmer weather before I started the eventual trip home (with a little detour, of course). I was in the Capitol Grill the day before the bowl game for dinner, and through a series of events came to have a brief conversation with one of the guys from the next table. Turns out he was on the Fiesta Bowl committee, and he was involved with last year’s Insight bowl as well. He was geniunely impressed with our fans and found the experience refreshing compared to the sense of entitlment that some of the traditional powers exude.
I met a few Flyertalkers for drinks before the game. I had to restrain myself when the organizer called Rutgers his “favorite mid-major”, and just chalked that up to the Texas football worldview where almost any team not from Texas is probably a mid-major. It just shows how much work the Big East needs to do to rehabilitate its reputation in football.
The game itself was a blast. The stadium was phenomenal, while the on the flipside the field condition was terrible. RU fans apparently shows up in droves, with more than 17,000 in attendance according to the Houston Chronicle (no link available). That Rutgers won 37-10 in what was really a dominating performance, especially in the second half, made it even more rewarding for Rutgers fans. The post-game component was unique, with a lot of love between the players. Eric Foster had the crowd perform the chant made famous in a video from the locker room after the South Florida game. All in all a special experience. Even more so with the chants of Brian Leonard throughout the game, who more than any player helped make Rutgers a special place to play and watch football.
The team returned home Friday, as did I. As expected, the early afternoon flights from Houston to Newark were incredibly overbooked, with my originally scheduled 12:05 pm flight needing what looked like at least 10 volunteers. In the end I saw them get around six, with another four IDBs (Involuntary Denied Boarding). Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to pick up a voucher and still get home the same day. So my relatively expensive trip ended up netting me $500 back.
All in all, a great experience. I can’t wait for next season!
Rutgers won the inagaural Texas Bowl. Woo-hoo! My week in review coming later.