Tulane to a P5? Careful What You Wish For (RE: Rutgers)

[GreenLantern]

Here's a link to a very interesting Article about Rutgers' move to the Big Ten and the resultant Scandals and Firings
(Note: This link is behind the NY Times paywall, but you can view 10 articles free each month without a subscription)

Some of the more interesting points from the article:

• Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014 for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was gaining a new revenue stream from TV deals. However, the Big Ten does not give new members their full cut of the revenue until the sixth year.
• The lure of larger revenue sharing several years in the future mandated an immediate investment in personnel and infrastructure. More than a dozen new buildings and renovations for athletics are expected to cost $100 million. Rutgers president, Dr. Barchi, said that "it wouldn't be out of context" to spend about $300 million.
• Currently the university subsidizes more than half of the athletic department's $70 million annual budget.
• Big time conferences require big time coaches - something Rutgers could not afford in 2014. Their existing coach, Kyle Flood, had a buyout that made a change unaffordable. They opted to continue with the staus quo until a number of embarrassments this year (on field and off) made it impossible to postpone personnel moves.
• Some Rutgers faculty members blamed the pressure of Big Ten membership for a number of scandals involving players. "It's an inevitable consequence of saying we'll do whatever it takes for being in the Big Ten."
• The Rutgers AD was also terminated. The new AD is Patrick Hobbs, former dean of Seaton Law School and most recently an ombudsman for Gov. Christie (attempting to restore ethical standards after the George Washington Bridge scandal). Ironically, Christie has presided over significant cuts to the university's operating budget.

Rutgers may well survive these growing pains and could even prosper in the coming decade. Would you have been confident that our former president, the intrepid Mr. Cowen (he of the non-publicized $20 million Tulane budget deficits), would have been capable of steering these choppy waters?

[jonathanjoseph]

Here's a link to a very interesting Article about Rutgers' move to the Big Ten and the resultant Scandals and Firings
(Note: This link is behind the NY Times paywall, but you can view 10 articles free each month without a subscription)

Some of the more interesting points from the article:

• Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014 for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was gaining a new revenue stream from TV deals. However, the Big Ten does not give new members their full cut of the revenue until the sixth year.
• The lure of larger revenue sharing several years in the future mandated an immediate investment in personnel and infrastructure. More than a dozen new buildings and renovations for athletics are expected to cost $100 million. Rutgers president, Dr. Barchi, said that "it wouldn't be out of context" to spend about $300 million.
• Currently the university subsidizes more than half of the athletic department's $70 million annual budget.
• Big time conferences require big time coaches - something Rutgers could not afford in 2014. Their existing coach, Kyle Flood, had a buyout that made a change unaffordable. They opted to continue with the staus quo until a number of embarrassments this year (on field and off) made it impossible to postpone personnel moves.
• Some Rutgers faculty members blamed the pressure of Big Ten membership for a number of scandals involving players. "It's an inevitable consequence of saying we'll do whatever it takes for being in the Big Ten."
• The Rutgers AD was also terminated. The new AD is Patrick Hobbs, former dean of Seaton Law School and most recently an ombudsman for Gov. Christie (attempting to restore ethical standards after the George Washington Bridge scandal). Ironically, Christie has presided over significant cuts to the university's operating budget.

Rutgers may well survive these growing pains and could even prosper in the coming decade. Would you have been confident that our former president, the intrepid Mr. Cowen (he of the non-publicized $20 million Tulane budget deficits), would have been capable of steering these choppy waters?

Cowen didn't even understand that there was a reason why these universities were doing it.

[TU23]

Sounds like the move to the Big 10 just shined a light on several Rutgers employees who were in over their heads regardless of conference affiliation. You can't be afraid to go for it all. You just have to be prepared. Rutgers was clearly not prepared. And even if they are hitting some potholes along the way, the Big 10 affiliation is more than worth it.

[OUG]

Rutgers was never a G5 school. They were in what was definitely a power BCS conference, the old Big East.

[jonathanjoseph]

Sounds like the move to the Big 10 just shined a light on several Rutgers employees who were in over their heads regardless of conference affiliation. You can't be afraid to go for it all. You just have to be prepared. Rutgers was clearly not prepared. And even if they are hitting some potholes along the way, the Big 10 affiliation is more than worth it.

Yep.

[jonathanjoseph]

Rutgers was never a G5 school. They were in what was definitely a power BCS conference, the old Big East.

Well neither were they ever in a P5 conference. They were in a BCS conference, but without the investments would likely be in the same position Tulane is today, so neither can it be said that they had some guaranteed leg up. You are either getting better or you are getting worse, and we've been getting worse every single day from 1998 up until Troy Dannen was hired.

[DfromCT]

Despite all their struggles, they sure put a beating on an overmatched CJ team in 2014.

[MicMan]

It's a race to the bottom for Rutgers, which a) hasn't and never will be able to recruit the majority of its own state's best players and b) Cannot ever hope to match the spending of Michigan, Ohio State, etc. whose portion of athletic budgets for mens sports dwarfs Rutgers'. The B1G wanted Rutgers for the eastern TV market and nothing else. Rutgers will soon take up permanent residence at the bottom of the league with Purdue, Indiana and the rest of the third-rate programs.

Hmm, sound familiar?