“You have money sucked out of academics and huge subsidies going to athletics,” said Mark Killingsworth, an economics professor. “You wonder what is this place. Are we a university or what? …”
… Rutgers does not intend to diminish its ambitions. Last year, the university explored joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, and on Thursday [AD Tim] Pernetti said that the Rutgers program was “priced to move in every way.”
January 28th, 2012 at 8:48AM
“priced to move”
My GOD that’s embarrassing!
January 28th, 2012 at 1:51PM
Michael: I didn’t even mention Snooki.
January 29th, 2012 at 11:49AM
I think you’re misunderstanding the proposed ACC move. Rutgers is in the Big East, an AQ football conference that seemed last year to be facing dissolution or downgrade. Being in an AQ conference has been very valuable – it is in effect the difference between having football “pay for itself” or lose a lot of money. So the ACC idea was actually intended to limit diversion of funds to athletics.
The Rutgers situation is unusual because you can actually see why they think they can benefit from big-time football – not only might they be able to build political support in their rather unfocused state, but Rutgers is apparently number one in fan support in the nation’s largest market.
That’s not to say it’s a good idea.