We constantly see articles that take major shots at our lack of winning in the major sports. We always hear about the residents of NJ and the greater NYC market not taking RU seriously.
Well, it is damn hard to argue about the lack of being competitive in football and basketball with a few exceptions that are usually considered anomalies by the writers or, at best, ancient history.
The bottom line as I see it is that we are blessed with being in the media capital of the country. So, if something goes well, it will definitely get out there. But, the other side of that "sword" is that we have the most demanding fan base to deal with since there is a ton of choices for them to root for and NJ has a ton of transplants from other states/schools who already have their team and RU will never be any better than second to them.
This somewhat unique situation is not the same for a lot of our adversaries. They have a dedicated media that lives and dies with what happens at state U. Competition from pro sports is usually not nearly as strong as we see in our market. Their fan bases are family traditions.
In short, many of our conference brothers are the "Coke" product and there is really nobody even close to challenging that position. We are nowhere near that level of popularity. This is a very tough crowd to win over and it will take consistent winning and nothing less to break that mold. The old argument of us getting into a real conference is the answer to respect has been shown to be wrong. The BE didn't help us and it was certainly once a pretty strong conference and our entry into the BIG isn't bringing in those elusive top prospects either.
Our current position is giving us the opportunity to be something relevant. The only acceptable next step is to take that opportunity and become what we can be. If we can't do that, we will certainly be financially secure but the price will be the same old news stories and comments that we all bridle at.
Well, it is damn hard to argue about the lack of being competitive in football and basketball with a few exceptions that are usually considered anomalies by the writers or, at best, ancient history.
The bottom line as I see it is that we are blessed with being in the media capital of the country. So, if something goes well, it will definitely get out there. But, the other side of that "sword" is that we have the most demanding fan base to deal with since there is a ton of choices for them to root for and NJ has a ton of transplants from other states/schools who already have their team and RU will never be any better than second to them.
This somewhat unique situation is not the same for a lot of our adversaries. They have a dedicated media that lives and dies with what happens at state U. Competition from pro sports is usually not nearly as strong as we see in our market. Their fan bases are family traditions.
In short, many of our conference brothers are the "Coke" product and there is really nobody even close to challenging that position. We are nowhere near that level of popularity. This is a very tough crowd to win over and it will take consistent winning and nothing less to break that mold. The old argument of us getting into a real conference is the answer to respect has been shown to be wrong. The BE didn't help us and it was certainly once a pretty strong conference and our entry into the BIG isn't bringing in those elusive top prospects either.
Our current position is giving us the opportunity to be something relevant. The only acceptable next step is to take that opportunity and become what we can be. If we can't do that, we will certainly be financially secure but the price will be the same old news stories and comments that we all bridle at.
