IMO this had to be one of the most tumultuous yet unifying times as a Rutgers fan that I can recall. IIRC this whole situation started basically because Mulcahy and Zoffinger were longtime political enemies stemming back from their days in the NJSEA. I think Zoffinger was pissed that Mulcahy got the Rutgers AD job and that RU Football/ Coach Schiano had begun to do well. After the '07 season the Stadium expansion was moving forward and IMO Zoffinger, using the SL as his medium, took this as an opportunity to get back at Mulcahy under the guise of 'financial responsibility' (funny, because at this time Zoff's pet project, Xanadu, was in year 4 of its construction, already a year past it's original projected opening and well over budget...8 years later and it's STILL under construction with no concrete opening date in sight).
IIRC early that fall the SL started doing weekly pieces about Rutgers and the 'high cost of major athletics'. This is a worthy subject of discussion, but the SL appeared to take a sensationalistic approach, framing information in a skewed/ inaccurate manner to make it seem as if Rutgers Football was throwing tens of millions of dollars down a manhole while going on a Floyd Mayweather shopping spree...with 'two' people being quoted often: George Zoffinger and "Undisclosed Sources" (which I guess was George Zoffinger's name when he didn't want to use his given name). It seemed like the main objectives were to stop the Stadium expansion and cost Mulcahy his job.
This all coincided with the team being in a 1-5 tailspin to open up the year. It seemed like everything was going to pot, but a HUGE positive factor was evident straight from the opening game; the South endzone expansion had begun. This was huge because IIRC it later came out that the expansion may have been halted but because we already started, it was past the point of no return and had to be seen through. Also, two more big things happened: the team started winning, and this board got ANGRY.
...we wrote letters, we called representatives, we cancelled SL subscriptions left and right, we even took out an ad in the SL itself to present what we believed was a more balanced view of the situation. IIRC the ad was paid to appear prominently in the Sunday edition, but it 'accidentally' ran buried somewhere obscure in the Saturday edition. We cried foul and it did end up running in the following Sunday edition as originally agreed upon.
The team rallied to finish the year 8-5 with a comeback win against NC State in the Papajohn's Bowl. The final outcome of the SL 'investigation' basically boiled down to Rutgers Football spending more money than it had before, but there was no evidence of misappropriation of funds or wrongdoing. Mulcahy did end up out as AD as a result of the firestorm (with Jerry Izenberg coming to his defense), but Zoffinger had to sign off on the Stadium expansion and he was also out from the BOG the nanosecond his term was up.
...why are these events so significant? If our Stadium expansion got blocked at that time, there's a huge chance that we're not in the B1G today. While Mulcahy had his faults as AD, he (with a big assist from Coach Schiano) may have accomplished perhaps the most important move in our athletic history in starting the Stadium expansion ASAP.
Joe P.
IIRC early that fall the SL started doing weekly pieces about Rutgers and the 'high cost of major athletics'. This is a worthy subject of discussion, but the SL appeared to take a sensationalistic approach, framing information in a skewed/ inaccurate manner to make it seem as if Rutgers Football was throwing tens of millions of dollars down a manhole while going on a Floyd Mayweather shopping spree...with 'two' people being quoted often: George Zoffinger and "Undisclosed Sources" (which I guess was George Zoffinger's name when he didn't want to use his given name). It seemed like the main objectives were to stop the Stadium expansion and cost Mulcahy his job.
This all coincided with the team being in a 1-5 tailspin to open up the year. It seemed like everything was going to pot, but a HUGE positive factor was evident straight from the opening game; the South endzone expansion had begun. This was huge because IIRC it later came out that the expansion may have been halted but because we already started, it was past the point of no return and had to be seen through. Also, two more big things happened: the team started winning, and this board got ANGRY.
...we wrote letters, we called representatives, we cancelled SL subscriptions left and right, we even took out an ad in the SL itself to present what we believed was a more balanced view of the situation. IIRC the ad was paid to appear prominently in the Sunday edition, but it 'accidentally' ran buried somewhere obscure in the Saturday edition. We cried foul and it did end up running in the following Sunday edition as originally agreed upon.
The team rallied to finish the year 8-5 with a comeback win against NC State in the Papajohn's Bowl. The final outcome of the SL 'investigation' basically boiled down to Rutgers Football spending more money than it had before, but there was no evidence of misappropriation of funds or wrongdoing. Mulcahy did end up out as AD as a result of the firestorm (with Jerry Izenberg coming to his defense), but Zoffinger had to sign off on the Stadium expansion and he was also out from the BOG the nanosecond his term was up.
...why are these events so significant? If our Stadium expansion got blocked at that time, there's a huge chance that we're not in the B1G today. While Mulcahy had his faults as AD, he (with a big assist from Coach Schiano) may have accomplished perhaps the most important move in our athletic history in starting the Stadium expansion ASAP.
Joe P.
