Just one week before National Signing Day, Greg Schiano has left the program that he himself had built to take a deal with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now Rutgers are left scratching their heads. On the other hand, Rutgers has to have seen a move coming, with the man who led them to their most successful stretch in history garnering national recognition for his accomplishments. It does seem odd, the way it seems he has left the program, especially considering the emotional relationship he had with his team and, more specifically, Eric LeGrand.
Meanwhile, the Star-Ledger has some interesting stats regarding the direction of Rutgers football and the school as a whole. Here's an excerpt via Deadspin.com:
"The Ledger analysis shows that Rutgers spent more on sports last year than most of the 120 college programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but the school could not keep pace when it came to generating revenue. As a result, 42 cents of every dollar Rutgers spent on athletics last year came from student fees, tuition dollars and other nonathletic revenue, among the highest ratios in the nation, the analysis reveals.
The athletic department spent $26.8 million more than it generated in revenue last year, a figure that ranks it among the 10 highest operating losses in major programs in the country, the analysis reveals. The loss was covered by $8.44 million in student fees and $18.4 million from the school's general fund.
[...]
The annual losses, however, have not deterred spending, which has almost doubled since 2005. The increase comes as overall state funding to the university has dropped by $29 million, or 10 percent, over the past three years, forcing officials to freeze salaries, rely more on part-time teachers and even yank faculty office phones. "
Feel free to share your thoughts on Schiano's departure in the replies.
This shocks me. I always figured he'd move along at some point, but I thought it'd be an elite college job.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I can see Rutgers to fall back to the ineptitude of the pre-Schiano era.
As for the operating deficit, I didn't expect Rutgers to make money off it's athletic program, but those statistics are a bit shocking to me.
Completely agree with you Ryan. Schiano is a college coach. His greatest asset is his recruiting which is obviously an irrelevant asset in the NFL. I thought that a big time college job was coming his way in the very near future. I'm looking at that 2-4 year window for NFL coaches to prove themselves, and then Schiano will be back in the college ranks.
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