So apparently Rutgers isn't quite rolling in $$$ after its move to the B1G. This great report goes in depth about a massive debt load and how it came to pass. While many would expect the AD to make a lot more money, joining the B1G has destroyed the budget. Rutgers Athletic Department has built multiple facilities to compete in the B1G while running a $20M+ deficit each year. The problem though is unlike many other P5 programs the buildings have almost no booster support and the AD/University must pay for it themselves. Rutgers built a massive athletic building for nearly all non-revenue sports to be on the same level as other B1G schools. On top of this Rutgers has basically no ticket revenue. Their ticket sales are 13% of OSU's, totaling about $8 million per year(all sports.) OSU is likely going to bring in more than that in the Oregon game alone.
The biggest problem is simply the football teams performance. Ticket sales have dropped 38% since joining the conference. Ideally they would increase with the opportunity to see better teams but the on field product has been too terrible. Football is expected to fund other sports but as of now football has a deficit of its own. They are in desperate need of Schiano to turn that thing around.
The B1G has also stepped in giving $50 million in loans to the athletic department. They are going to be a really interesting case study to find out if money can develop a good athletic department. On paper Rutgers should be great at sports, only P5 school in a high population/athletic state. They are in the middle of a few huge tv markets. They are the flagship public university with 70k students enrolled and well over 500k alumni. However they suck at sports and it has taken basically the state government and the B1G tons of money to try to turn it around. I wouldn't write them off yet but man it would be ugly if it doesn't pan out.
https://www.njherald.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2021/09/04/rutgers-athle...
