The long day’s journey into court that is Rutgers – a bastion of filth and corruption (read the sports posts I just linked to) even by Jersey standards – moves appreciably closer to an actual court date. To revisit my Rutgers athletics posts over many years is to marvel again at the special brew of shiftless greedy presidents, vile and violent coaches, criminal gang team players, invisible and indifferent fans, etc etc, that has made Rutgers what it is today.

When removing student fees ($138.1M), university support ($146.2M) and state funding ($42.1M) from the revenue total, Rutgers’ deficit since joining the Big Ten surpasses $516 million, marking the biggest in the league by a significant margin.

Most Big Ten schools rely on some form of subsidy, NJ.com analysis shows, but none come close to Rutgers. In the past four years, the New Jersey school took in the most combined state support, direct-university support and student-fee revenue ($109.6M) by a wide margin.

Some American universities are, because of economic/demographic changes, in a state of near-existential crisis. It’s adorably retro to watch Rutgers kill itself for the oldest reason – football/spectacular greed.

… shows us yet again why basketball coaches are so highly compensated (G’town’s prez only makes one mill): They are GREAT ambassadors for the school, especially to the youngest among us.

Watch for him to be rewarded with a million dollar raise next year.

How do you even reckon that up? What do you do with all the other dirtiest programs in college football?

SING IT

Tickets have a five-fold rise
Fans must pay a rip-off price
Too ra loo ra loo
Pat a pat a pan
When I pay my FIFA sum
How can anyone be glum

At this late date it isn’t about the ancient layers of moral filth in the soil of bigtime college football; even UD, who giveth not a fuck about collegiate sports, can recite the (highly selective) history of ick Mitch Albom reviews here — all of his nostalgia prompted by U Mich’s latest coaching scandal.

Its six million dollar a year coach got to be coach when the coach before him was suspended for recruitment violations (the new coach – duh – was also guilty of recruitment violations) but hey that doesn’t even count in any university sports reckoning, does it? Business as usual. Sex shit, however, plus assault, plus the guy who earns five million more than the school president is as we speak in jail… They’ve dumped the dude for cause but he’ll sue anyway and end up costing UM many millions. Life of the mind.

Pennsylvania State University [will close] seven campuses due to financial constraints, while Louisiana State University [has] implemented a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures.

[B]oth institutions [recently] fired their head football coaches. Penn State [paid] more than $45 million to make head coach James Franklin go away … LSU fired Brian Kelly [and] gave him a buyout of $54 million.

Concerned parents are speaking out after more than a dozen fights broke out during the Parker vs. Ramsay football game at Legion Field, an event meant to celebrate non-violence.

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Hey but no one fired a gun. In Birmingham Alabama, that counts as non-violence.

Yes, wotta shocker. Football violence? Now I’ve seen everything.

David sends UD news of a just-built $62 million high school football stadium down Georgia way.

One of the stadium’s boosters justifies the expense by pointing out that, for example, the innovative seating arrangement lets the whole family hear sixteen year olds get CTE concussions in real time.

East Carolina U football players aren’t afraid to get up real early in the morning and get stuff done! Neighbors complained though and the players were arrested.

Two went quietly, while one hid in the house, hoping cops wouldn’t notice.

Their mug shots reveal a complex melange of emotions.

#1: KILL YOU FUCKERS

#2: Shitting my pants

#3: Mom and Dad are on their way to bond me out

… he’s clean as a whistle!

Ah the Gophers! Gnawing their way, for centuries, through the foundation of the University of Minnesota! Now they’ve got a nearly nine million dollar athletics budget deficit, and what to do? Hm, hm…

How bout we hit the students up for an extra one hundred dollars to pay for coach buyouts, litigation costs after scandals, upkeep on a massive underused stadium, etc etc etc.

Far as I can tell, UM students already pay 300 a year for sports whether they like it or not, so it looks as though UM is charging 400.

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Did they mention cutting down on travel expenses?

A third double fault from Anisimova on the opening point. Followed by another errant shot. And another. 0-40, three more break points. This is uncomfortable viewing. She just can’t shake the stage fright off. She needs the crowd to help her get into it, but they’re as subdued and shocked as she is. Even more so when Anisimova concedes the break to love. Anisimova has been known in the past for sometimes being fragile mentally on court, but had held her nerve so well in this tournament, especially when seeing off Sabalenka in the semi-finals. But she just can’t get going here.

Trial coming up for one of the University of Alabama’s many gun-mad basketball players. Couple years ago a whole bunch of players went out for some fun and ended up shooting a woman to death. I mean, one of them, a friend of the players’, actually shot her, but one of the players provided the gun blahblah.

So the guy who actually shot her just got sentenced to life without parole, and things don’t look too good for the player who handed him the gun. Trial coming up.

Another player out with his teammates that night had already established a “pat-down” entrance whenever introduced before a game (this was a precursor to the much higher profile Ja Morant bit), and he kept it going even after he began to be investigated in connection with the murder. Straightlaced Deadspin considered the fact that the pat-down guy was allowed to play at all “quite shocking,” but c’mon. It’s ALABAMA.

Anyway, here’s a local opinion writer gettin all boohoo bout bloody Bama but really baby nobody gives a shit.

Just as much fun as the monkey chants and banana tosses whenever a black player enters the field!