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Rutgers and Nelligan Sports Marketing
Today's Trentonian has a story on the relationship between Rutgers and Nelligan Sports Marketing, and more specifically, about the degree to which Rutgers had previously acknowledged payments going from Nelligan to Greg Schiano.
There's been a lot of chatter out there about a 2006 story in the Star-Ledger that mentioned a portion of Schiano's salary coming from Nelligan. Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy told me that story, and the press releases sent out after Schiano signed his current contract in 2005 and after the extension he got after the 2006 sesaon, are evidence that Rutgers hasn't been hiding the fact that Nelligan is helping it pay Schiano.
To be clear, neither the story, which mentioned Nelligan by name, nor either of the releases, which don't but which reference guaranteed money from other sources, were released after the addendum with the much-publicized extra $250,000 from Nelligan. Rutgers made no mention in any way of the addendum, and that's why Mulcahy and his department have gotten so much recent criticism.
Having said that, the folks at Rutgers think a lot of this is getting blown way out of proportion, and that if Nelligan helping pay Schiano's salary was a big deal, there would have been a big fuss about it at least two years ago. I understand where they're coming from. As I wrote on Wednesday, if Mulcahy had simply announced the extra money that was discovered in the addendum, none of this fuss would be taking place. I'm not chastising Mulcahy for trying to deceive the press, because I don't think that's what he was doing. I think for the most part, he simply didn't think the extra $250K was that big of a deal.
What do you think?
There's been a lot of chatter out there about a 2006 story in the Star-Ledger that mentioned a portion of Schiano's salary coming from Nelligan. Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy told me that story, and the press releases sent out after Schiano signed his current contract in 2005 and after the extension he got after the 2006 sesaon, are evidence that Rutgers hasn't been hiding the fact that Nelligan is helping it pay Schiano.
To be clear, neither the story, which mentioned Nelligan by name, nor either of the releases, which don't but which reference guaranteed money from other sources, were released after the addendum with the much-publicized extra $250,000 from Nelligan. Rutgers made no mention in any way of the addendum, and that's why Mulcahy and his department have gotten so much recent criticism.
Having said that, the folks at Rutgers think a lot of this is getting blown way out of proportion, and that if Nelligan helping pay Schiano's salary was a big deal, there would have been a big fuss about it at least two years ago. I understand where they're coming from. As I wrote on Wednesday, if Mulcahy had simply announced the extra money that was discovered in the addendum, none of this fuss would be taking place. I'm not chastising Mulcahy for trying to deceive the press, because I don't think that's what he was doing. I think for the most part, he simply didn't think the extra $250K was that big of a deal.
What do you think?
posted by Ben Doody at
3:38 AM
3 Comments:
Looks like you've been reading rutgersfan.com.
The NJ Comptroller is investigating, let's see what they say about it. My guess: they will find no violation of any kind, but recommend Schiano's contract should be public, even if that is not a requirement. My first impression of it all was that the Ledger was blowing the lid off another version of Watergate - running a series of articles with dribs and drabs of info, much of it a rehash of old news. Unless new info is uncovered, it's a big nothing.
The question I ask myself is why is the Ledger doing this?
money
I can understand why Rutgers would want to keep quiet about Schiano's opt out clause. Schiano, despite his recent increases in pay, is still getting less than he could get elsewhere. But Schiano also knows if he can continue to move the Rutgers program forward, it could become bigger than any other college football program, sitting between the largest media market, NYC, and the 4th largest, Philadelphia.
So in the heat of negotiations to keep him from going to Miami for 3 million or Michigan for who knows how much, Rutgers says stay for less, but we'll leverage your recent successes with a stadium expansion. Schiano says, 'Put that in writing, and I'll stay." because it gives him hope to create the mother of all college football programs.
So at this point there are two schools of though: 1) see it through with the expansion, 2) or throttle back and get out of Division 1A Football.
Seeing it through with the expansion means expecting Schiano to continue to improve the quality of recruiting that yields a Big East Championship and then a National Championship. You have to admit, the 2009 class of prospects is by far the highest class of athletes for Rutgers ever. I do not doubt it will happen. Schiano has vision, skill and drive. The kids see that, feel that, and become supermotivated by it. Ray Rice was just a three star prospect when he signed up, and three years later he is in the NFL.
The other road has Rutgers throttling back, exiting Division 1a Football. How can someone make that happen? The first order of business is to get rid of Schiano. Kill the dream by cutting it off at the head. Remove all that vision, skill, and drive and the dismantling will probably happen by itself, or with significantly less effort. Dig up whatever you can. If you can't get much, keep repeating it and rehashing it. And be sure to de-emphasize the positives. Barely Mention the SNY success, or the Third Place Academic award among public institutions. Definately do not repeat it. Down play Shiano's volunteer participation in the Special Olympics, or the other charity work he performs.
So which path do we take? One group wants one thing and one group wants the other.
I think we have crossed the Rubicon at this point. We shouldn't turn back. We have the stadium with lights, and ESPN and SNY contracts. Recruiting is zooming off the charts. What are we supposed to just exit the stage with the last person out turning off the lights? The emotional Rubicon was crossed when we beat Louisville and went to triple overtime against West Virginia. There is no turning back now.
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