You keep bringing up Maryland and St. John's as examples of how the everyman needs to step up. St. Johns is being driven by a billionaire, and Maryland has the UA connection. Say what you want about their business, but they just signed an agreement with UMD to pay their kids for NIL nonsense, in addition to whatever Plank does on his own. Where is the RU billionaire? Where is the RU affiliation that everyone knows about? If RU had that, the athletic dept wouldn't be the disaster it's always been and the everyman may be contributing more at this point.
Poor NIL is the biggest reason for our disappointing season
- Thread starter rutgersal
- Start date
You get extended leash when you finish a season strong and recruit well. Fans see positives.
This program was a complete laughing stock when he took over the first go-round. Has sent multiple useful players to the pros. And got the good housekeeping seal of approval for his development of players from none other than Bill Belichick. But that's all he's achieved I guess
So was the basketball program. Players to pros means bupkis. Belichick’s seal of approval means bupkis. The only thing that matters is wins and he’s barely .500 last 2 years and 26-34 since he’s been back. Like I said, good coach but don’t see how he’s the gold standard.
Rutgers has 23 major league sports teams within 250 miles of campus, 28 including MLS. Florida State has zero.
Lots of competition for the sports fan dollars around here.
Moreover, Rutgers donors prefer to give to academics. That is why Rutgers endowment value is more than 2x that of Florida State.
Holloway talked up the number of Rutgers donors in recent message. "We reached and surpassed a $250 million fundraising goal because of a surge in new givers: more than 7,500 of our 34,000 donors in fiscal year 2024 were first-time donors."
For example, I used to give to the gymnastics team. Now, I give to an academic scholarship. Do you blame me?
Pike has a .400 winning percentage in the B1G lifetime and a .408 winning percentage in league the last three years. So not a model either.
And that’s great. Every amount of support that Rutgers gets is a win.
For this fundraising, the scope of our outreach is to Rutgers Basketball Fans, especially season ticket holders. I don’t think there is a lot of overlap here, with professional sports. There likely is overlap with Rutgers Football.
If you’re a Rutgers Basketball Season Ticket holder, you should be willing to kick in an extra $1K - $2K, because doing so will improve the value of your season tickets, by allowing Rutgers to put a better product out there. Since you’re going to spend all this time watching the basketball team, you should do a little more to ensure the basketball team will be worth watching.
That's completely clown shoes. Maybe if you're talking people in the 100s who are already donating a bunch to get priority points, but the people in the 300s are not going to throw an extra $2K on top of what they're already spending.
Maybe that's an angle - add NIL collective contributions to the priority point formula.
Shelby hopes you didn’t just figure this out now. He’s been a national laughingstock for as long as anyone can remember and assuredly a recognized contrary jackass among his personal acquaintances ever since he learned to speak. He does claim to be a fearsome 6’ 230 lb hulk capable of beating senseless any unfortunate soul who dares challenge his historically unmatched mountain man brutal power, ain’t that right Big Man Al of Gold’s Gym ?
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Going back to the original post, everyone should do what they can. If someone is scrapping up Pennies to pay for their season tickets, and barely making ends meet, then they obviously aren’t in position to donate. Those of us with the capacity, need to step up.
If people in the 300s can only do 100, then they should do 100. Fans need to understand that their support will help determine the product we put out on the court.
At the end of the day, the ending tally needs to be $1M to $2M for us to have a sufficient warchest to get quality transfers to turn this thing around.
For now, NIL collective contributions have to be separate from ticketing payments.
Getting to a bowl regularly should be table stakes for us. Same for NCAA March tournament.
About half of FBS teams get invited to a bowl game. About 10% get an at large bid to the tournament.
Guess what? A lot of Big Ten Schools are supported by Billionaires. Here are some:
Ohio State - Lou Wexner
Michigan - Stephen Ross
Penn State - Terry Pegula
Northwestern - Ryan Family
Oregon - Philip Knight
USC - B Wayne Hughes
Illinois - Shahid Khan
Michigan State - Matt Ishbia
Maryland - Kevin Plank
Indiana - Mark Cuban
So do we give up just because we don’t have any billionaires? Of course not! We do what we can to make a tangible difference. While we don’t have the whales that other schools have, we have strength in numbers. We have lots of thousandaires who can fork over few thousand to ensure the success of our athletics programs.
It was nearly unanimous by our fans that we wanted to join the Big Ten. Well here we are, and now it’s on us to provide the necessary funds to compete.
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Maybe RU should do a better job of cultivating relationships with its billionaires. The everyman follows the billionaire. If the investment in RU isn't worth it to them, why would it be to people w limited funds?
Obviously, RU should do a better job getting it's young alum involved early too.
I wonder if fans would have wanted the big if told they would have to pay for it?
Our tickets, parking, merch, etc have all been more $ that everybody has been paying since the move
Not trying to be funny, you should seek clinical help.
Greg got one top 25 in 16 years. Tens of millions in the pockets.
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Thousandaires can fork over a few thousand? So give up all they can while one billionaire is equal to thousands of the ones you say should go bankrupt to support the program?! The fact that you name so many B1G schools with whales supports the fact that that’s the correct path.
yer preachin’ to the choir, my man ! Not only that, but 3 teams he never beat left the conference by then which enabled a much better record and ranking.
Schiano has had the luckiest tailwind of all time, squanders it always, and yet he’s still adored.
We don’t have any, to the best of my knowledge. At best, we have millionaires.
What was the alternative to the B1G? Remaining in the American Conference and knashing our teeth? No way. There was no other choice. Now people have to pony up.
Thousandaires meaning well over $100K in savings and making well over $100K. These people can fork over $1K or more to support Rutgers Basketball. No one needs to go bankrupt. We have to work with what we have, not what we want.
Those are hundred thousandaires. Just saying. Regular thousandaires have $1K in savings.
Also known as "the vast majority" that does not have extra money to throw into a fireplace.
Perfect. That’s it exactly. The millionaires and billionaires have difference-making money. They have the money to tear out the wall and turn the old fireplace into a glorious entertainment center for all to enjoy. The rest of us are literally kindling for a fire with our money.
I made a hypocritical comment here a few weeks ago that I regret (and somebody cleverly called me out on it immediately, ha ha). I said something along the lines of "I don't like having a subsidiary of NIKE in the league." I didn't fully understand the above -- many schools, including Maryland, have corporate or "sugar daddy" pipelines. I'm pretty old school and maybe had my head in the sand a bit.
Sorry for the hypocrisy...
Going back to my first post, people should give what they can. If you’re pinching Pennies, you’re not in position to donate. We have lots of fans that can but won’t. If we want to compete, people have to step up.
The thing is, the average fan skipping out on a family movie night to give $50 to players grants them literally nothing in exchange. At best, if thousands of others to the same, there's a chance that there's a portal player that might make an impact. It's gambling, with no immediate payoff, and no way if knowing if it had any impact at all. There's no line drawn between action and effect.
If it affected priority points, at least you could see a tangible number that could improve your seating/parking/gameday experience. But that's also robbing Peter to pay Paul, since it likely wouldn't increase overall donations but merely shift them from the school to the players
Not everything has to be transactional in life. When you invest in the basketball program, you improve the chances of positive outcomes on the basketball court. Is there a guarantee? Of course not. We watch because there is no guarantee. We invest so that Rutgers can put the optimal product out there. That’s the payoff.
Right now it is against NCAA regulations for universities to be directly involved with NIL, so the priority point question is moot.
Yes, the money would not have been there if it wasn’t Ace and Dylan.
Of course not
The regular NIL money was either tiny or poorly spent or both
Martini got how much? What could we have gotten instead with it?
Rinse repeat for Acuff and Derkack
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The problem with relying on the little guy to fund NIL is they give and give and give. All along what return do they see? Over the past few years they see a program on the decline. That even with two five stars getting a boat load. They get discouraged and start to question why they’re sacrificing. Then they’re gone forever. They need to see tangible success not steady decline. It seems only a whale can give us that now, but it’s not just the kids getting the NIL that have to perform. It has to come from a culture (which we’ve abandoned), from discipline (not goofing off in layup lines), from player development and yes from wins which ultimately come if you stick the prior things mentioned.
I seriously can't believe we're still debating this...because it's not even a debate.
Of course one (hey why stop there...two/three four billionaires) billionaire would be awesome and would be the quickest fix to our $$$ problems. As will more everyday fans giving smaller amounts. And they will both build on each other because if either happens results will improve. If we are in the top half of the B1G in money and still not producing like one then you can make a coaching change.
This whole thread is just for people who want to justify not giving. Which many have said it's ok to not give for many reasons. But not giving and also bitching and moaning about every little thing including there not being enough money from random billionaires is weak imo.
Of course one (hey why stop there...two/three four billionaires) billionaire would be awesome and would be the quickest fix to our $$$ problems. As will more everyday fans giving smaller amounts. And they will both build on each other because if either happens results will improve. If we are in the top half of the B1G in money and still not producing like one then you can make a coaching change.
This whole thread is just for people who want to justify not giving. Which many have said it's ok to not give for many reasons. But not giving and also bitching and moaning about every little thing including there not being enough money from random billionaires is weak imo.
