Rah Rah, Siss Boom Blah

by: Steven Hart

Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 07:00:45 PM EDT

As a Rutgers University alumnus, I guess I should be thrilled that the Scarlet Knights football team is actually winning games after umpteen years of serving as a ready source of laugh lines for The Sopranos. Time to get my raccoon-skin coat out of storage, break out some pennants and yell boolah boolah fom the stands alongside Mister Magoo — right?

Wrong. The university may finally be winning on the football field, but it’s still punting its responsiblities to its students. A season of gold-plated pigskin doesn’t make up for the tens of millions of dollars squandered in the pursuit of gridiron glory. The fact that some glandular cases get to do the funky chicken in the endzone doesn’t make up for the funding cuts, the tuition hikes, the sloughing off of teaching duties onto grad students, and all the other symptoms of McDonaldization that have followed in the train of the university’s quest to become a big-time player in college sports.

Steven Hart :: Rah Rah, Siss Boom Blah

The notion that big-time collegiate sports brings any benefits more concrete than a chance for drunken alumni to strut around on the bleachers has been soundly thrashed by exposes in Sports Illustrated and elsewhere. The wildest blue-sky fancies of the dot.com era are all hard-headed realism when compared with the daydreams of university governing boards. Big-time football isn’t going to generate any real revenue for Rutgers. Quite the opposite.

If sports nuts want to have another team to cheer for, that’s fine, but let’s not kid ourselves about the price tag. Rutgers has saddled itself with a great big overmuscled baby, a baby that’s always hungry and doesn’t take no for an answer. Feeding him is going to be an expensive proposition, and the funds have to come from somewhere — and I don’t mean revenues from the sale of Scarlet Knights beer mugs.

In a way, I preferred those halcyon days when the team couldn’t find its collective butt with a map and a flashlight. Every losing season stripped away a few more layers of illusion, and left no room for doubt about the delusional nature of the venture launched two decades ago by university president Edward Bloustein and promoter Sonny Werblin. Now . . . well, read this piece in City Belt and ask yourself if the whole thing has been at all worthwhile.

Cross posted at The Opinion Mill.

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Rah Rah, Siss Boom Blah | 5 comments

rutgers.... (0.00 / 0)

...also slashed the tennis and swim teams this season as well. which is too bad because tennis and swimming are two sports which tend to attract quality student athletes to the program. I guess Rutgers is caught up in the intoxication of football success, but it's pretty bittersweet if you ask me.

activist for hire.

by: Jay Lassiter @ Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 23:30:54 PM UTC

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RU sports and $ (0.00 / 0)

If the RU football team actually lands a BCS bid this year, it would mean a huge payday - more than enough to save the Rutgers swim team (and the fencing, crew, and men's tennis teams - they're all slated to go). If the argument in favor of bigtime football success (besides the fun facepainting) is to have the athletic department be self-sufficient and not drain academic resources, the least they could do is keep the "smaller" sports afloat with the added cash.

by: Jeff Gardner @ Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 02:53:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I thought the BCS money (0.00 / 0)

gets shared amongst all conference teams. Am I wrong?

Frank LoBiondo Record and Jon Runyan Watch

by: Hopeful @ Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 02:56:21 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Some is shared, some is kept. (0.00 / 0)

All the Big East schools share the profits of being members of a BCS conference - that's something like $2.5 million each. But, the individual team that earns the conference's BCS berth gets an extra payout (also about $2.5 million or thereabouts) to keep.

by: Jeff Gardner @ Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 03:14:32 AM UTC

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Siss, Boom, Blech (0.00 / 0)

Not to mention the amount of time, energy, and money wasted on the grandiose plans for transforming the College Avenue campus – something that isn't likely to happen anytime soon – if ever.

Most taxpayers faced with a severe loss of income realize that maybe the new house addition will have to be put off. Not Rutgers' senior administrators though whose fiscal restraint comes into play only on the backs of students, part-time faculty, teaching assistants, and non-favored employees.

Unfair, says Rutgers, because no public monies were involved: the architectural competition and related activities were privately funded by a one million dollar grant from Bank America.

And that about sums it up for New Jersey's state university: an embarrassment of riches when it comes to pie-in-the-sky schemes, major revenue sports, and high-level perks; a beggar when it comes to tuition, deferred maintenance, and lower-echelon salaries.

by: noodletalk @ Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 02:50:03 AM UTC

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Rah Rah, Siss Boom Blah | 5 comments