Rutgers doesn’t win enough because most of you don’t donate enough
- Thread starter rutgersal_rivals139582
- Start date
I must have missed the fine print because the AEF is pitched as a “tax-deductible, flexible funding for athletic scholarships, team equipment, and travel, with donors earning priority points for contributions” …”provides essential support for revenue sharing”…which I thought was different from the collective but if the AEF is simply a way to disguise NIL payments directly to players than I stand corrected.
I know all about Cignetti. No doubt, Cignetti is a great coach. But he also has the support to be successful.
We didn’t spend anything close to what Indiana spent. Cignetti has hinted that Indiana spent $30M - $40M on players last year. $2.6M on Mendoza alone. Indiana has done very well identifying and recruiting the right portal players.
We spent closer to $20M.
- Indiana had 8 players drafted
- Ohio State had 11 players drafted
- Michigan had 7 players drafted
- Washington had 7 players drafted
- Oregon had 7 players drafted
- Iowa had 7 players drafted
- USC had 3 players drafted
Indiana also spent $86M on facilities, something you completely ignore. What was the first thing Schiano said he needed when he rejoined? A football facility! What does Syracuse have that Rutgers doesn’t. A new football facility. Whose class does On3 rank higher? Syracuse.
We are not recruiting well enough so that
Schiano has the talent to maximize. We have the #37 class this year. USC is #1, followed by Oregon and OSU close behind.
We are recruiting well enough to be competitive in the ACC, not the Big Ten. That’s why 6 Wins is going to be a push for us every season.
Indiana spent a lot more on infrastructure and NIL than we did.
You need the talent to win, Matei. Indiana won because for two consecutive seasons they brought in the talent to win from the portal. Last year, they brought in the Heisman winner.
So It is not ridiculing to say we are not bringing in the talent to be successful. It is not ridiculing to say we don’t have the support to be successful. Having the recruiting and transfer classes towards the bottom of the Big Ten is fact. This isn’t the path to success.
He won enough to make it to the National Championship Game, so quit while your behind.
Our biggest issue is that we are weak in the trenches. We are not recruiting enough high school kids who are developing into Big Ten linemen. Our attrition rate is atrocious. To be successful, we need the Jeremy Zuttahs, Anthony Davis, and Darius Hamilton type recruits to come to Rutgers. Or we need to be able to recruit the Michael Dwumfour types. They have eluded us.
Rutgers Lax had a great season. Brecht should be coach of the year. One win against a top 20 team, finishing last in the B1G and unranked behind schools like BU and Loyola can all be blamed on lack of lax NIL funding and full scholarships.
Atheltic Departments revenue share with athletes now - approx $20m.
Since Atheltic Departments couldn't possibly be expected to pay their own expenses, they created the AEF.
"Donations" to the AEF are used directly to subsidize this revenue share expense.
Since they arent getting the full $20m into the AEF - they are doing this anyway. Using general AD funds for the rest of the revenue share.
It's meaningless.
If there was no AEF, then the AD would use normal "donations" to subsudize this revenue share expense.
Its like the "coach private jet travel funds".
Its just a donation to the AD like any other. Except you can designate it for a specific expense.
I guess it could make you feel better than your money is going towards athletes instead of Robb Smiths salary.
End of the day, it's all just a continuation of fans subsidizing every AD expense through "donations".
Thanks….so do AEF donations get funneled directly to athletes in the form of signing and retention payments?
Yes.
Athletic Excellence Fund
The Athletic Excellence Fund will provide critical support for revenue-sharing with Rutgers student-athletes. The investments will enhance the Scarlet Knights' ability to recruit, retain, and develop top-tier talent across all sports. Gifts to this fund are tax deductible and supporters will receive Priority Points for contributions. The Athletic Excellence Fund will also generate the necessary resources to support the infrastructure of R NIL and to continue to build the Rutgers Athletics brand in the Big Ten and nationally.
Rutgers Athletics Launches Athletic Excellence Fund to Propel Scarlet Knights into New Era of Collegiate Athletics - Rutgers University RFund
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers Athletics announced today the launch of the Athletic Excellence Fund, a bold new initiative that will provide direct support to Scarlet
rfund.scarletknights.com
Myself- agree with everything Mrsscrew said- 100%
As for giving to NIL- The whole point of it is complete BS. This was supposed to be a get paid for NIL- not a fan donation contest.
And no way in hell am I giving lump sums of cash to kids that most likely leave in a year or two.
If I have an extra $10k just sitting around to donate- it will be for someone in need, not paying college players.
That extra money will go to my Grand daughter's college fund- it will go to disabled veterans- it will go to families that lose everything in fires or it goes into my own retirement fund.
Have a football or basketball team full of kids that won't stay here for their career, and give them that money- hell, I would rather just free up my Saturdays and go do something with my family.
As for giving to NIL- The whole point of it is complete BS. This was supposed to be a get paid for NIL- not a fan donation contest.
And no way in hell am I giving lump sums of cash to kids that most likely leave in a year or two.
If I have an extra $10k just sitting around to donate- it will be for someone in need, not paying college players.
That extra money will go to my Grand daughter's college fund- it will go to disabled veterans- it will go to families that lose everything in fires or it goes into my own retirement fund.
Have a football or basketball team full of kids that won't stay here for their career, and give them that money- hell, I would rather just free up my Saturdays and go do something with my family.
Didn’t Indiana and Miami beat historical programs to get to the NC game? It’s amazing what adequate support can do. There’s no reason why we can’t do the same. We just blasted Indiana 3 years ago. We beat Miami in the bowl game three years ago. Now they’re on the moon and we’re in manure, because they invested significantly in NIL
and we did not.
GS will get us over the hump if we give him the support. Indiana and Miami are clear case studies we should strive to emulate.
Greg Schiano’s protege, Miami’s Mario Cristobal, is GS with significant NIL support. It took Miami 4 years of consistent NIL support to make it to the MNC game. It took Indiana 2 years. They are case studies for success, but also have one thing in common. Money, lots of it. Indiana spent $2.6M on their quarterback. Miami spent $4M on theirs.
Indiana spent $86M on facilities. Miami spent significantly on facilities previously as well.
We don’t need Phil Knight. We just need enough people who care. We have to better monetize our premium parking assets. We can create an Athletics endowment fund.
1000 Rutgers fans who significantly care can have the impact of one Phil Knight. That’s all we need.
The foundation of college atheltics is a "fan donation contest".
Is donating so Robb Smith and Sparber can get fired after a year somehow better than donating to an athlete?
Donating so Knight can have a bottom of the B1G offense every year?
If you want to donate towards family or more worthy causes? Great! That's excellent.
I just dont under how donating to help pay all the various Atheltic Department expenses (including lots of employees who are not here for their career) is somehow more noble than donating to help the Atheltic Department expenses.
Guess what? Your donations to the AD are going directly to athletes anyway. Because the AEF isn't fully covering it.
None of the 8 players from Indiana were on anyone's draft radar until the last 2 years. Mendoza wasn't a Heisman candidate at Cal. It seems to me that a lot of the players Cignetti brought in were guys who played for him at JMU, where he won. Google him. The reason 6 wins is a push every year is that RU is not coaching well enough to be competitive. Schiano knows this. Hence the influx of new coaches.
Cignetti is 10 x the coach GS will ever be
Mario is still awful, they won in spite of him, not b/c of him, due to the $$
GS will never, and I mean ever, get us over the hump
Great man, builder of programs, someone I'd want my son to play for and daughter to marry... but not a good head coach
Indiana won due to CS, and the relationships he had at JMU, along w/player development
Cuban didn't start writing checks until the results warranted it
Miami could have, and should have, been much better, much sooner, but Mario held them back
Like GS, he's a good man - but good men, and good football coaches, are not mutually exclusive
The GT game 2 years ago was basically the same as the Illinois game we lost - Rutgers and Miami blew those games b/c of the head coach
Miami had to overspend to compensate for Mario's defenicies - and, when push came to shove, with the game was in their backyard, at their home stadium... they still lost
I'm not really donating a thing- I pay to watch the games on TV if I can't make it and when I can- I pay for my tickets and parking. I am a fan- that is really the extent of a fan's responsibility.
I have no issue if the rest of you have money laying around that you don't need. I am nearing retirement myself- I will spend money where I need to spend it. I just am not going to take away from family and my personal life to pay a random kid that really has no appreciation for it.
Anyone that does have that throw away money- all the power to you and I have no issue what you do or don't do with your money.
Yes money donated is fungible since all, or nearly all individual funds are ultimately subsidized from the general fund.
Talent is never the problem at Miami. Coaching is. Every coach since Schnellenberger has had National Championship level talent on the roster. Some of those coaches maximized it and others did not. Cristobal is in the second category until he proves otherwise by actually winning a championship.
Greg Schiano beat Cristofail with a QB who couldn't pass the ball at all. That's all you need to know.
Couldn't even win the pathetic Acc. He won enough to lose in the championship game. All that talent. What a waste.
How much have you donated to Rutgers? How much have you donated to Miami? You want to get into everyone's business let's do it. I'm well into six figures.
Exactly, because the type of donors required for something like this aren't going to be found on the Rutgers message board. Lol I'm pretty sure this guys knows that, he's basically bullying the board because he donates and he thinks board members dont. I remember he was saying he sent Gavin wimsatt some money even after he transferred. Pretty sure he donated some money for Angelino Mark as well I don't want to shame or discourage those that do donate because it all adds up. You want to donate a couple thousand? every little bit helps but look at the type of donors all the trending nil programs have. Indiana has Mark Cuban for example. Coming on the Rutgers message board pounding the table to get people to spend their vacation money on Rutgers nil isn't going to get you there. Rutgers al legendary troll..
Personally I liked the Rutgers will win the national championship trolls better ..I actually would be on board with one of those..you wouldn't even have to lie describing the offensive players. "kj Duff 6'6" projected first round NFL draft pick that had the best catch in all of college football last year" "Antwan Raymond the best returning rb in the big ten will be running behind an experienced offensive line."
Wait a minute,
I wonder if Rutgers al was in mo toure's ear about transferring to Miami? Lol...jk it turned out to be a good call anyway......but I do wonder 
lol
No way he can get close enough to the athletes. He makes songs on Youtube. No one with any juice would do something so idiotic.Wait a minute,
Lacrosse was doing really well when I looked. You guys really support them. If the revenue sports got similar support they would be in much better shape.
We are coaching well on the offensive side of the ball. We weren’t coaching well on the defensive side of the ball, which is why we have new coaches. But you can’t just be blind to the fact that the defense likely doesn’t have enough talent to succeed. Furthermore, Indiana brought in 42 transfers last year. You can’t just ignore the fact that we can’t do what they did, due to lack of resources.
You also can't ignore Greg Schiano needs to have a funded staff 2x the size of Indiana's. Maybe some of that money should have gone to player acquisition. It's just stupid to have this much staff for a cash strapped dept.
Schiano has everything except what he actually needs. A GM. Meanwhile, smart programs like SC have hired assistant GM's for the GM. And they are actually doing the work of a GM. But hey, we have an assistant QB coach and few other programs do. Winning!
Keli can't allow this nonsense to continue.
Schiano has everything except what he actually needs. A GM. Meanwhile, smart programs like SC have hired assistant GM's for the GM. And they are actually doing the work of a GM. But hey, we have an assistant QB coach and few other programs do. Winning!
Keli can't allow this nonsense to continue.
Rutgers brought in the transfers at the positions they felt needed an influx of talent. If you notice, no wr transfer was brought in, only 1 rb, only 1 linebacker. But 3 defensive lineman in addition to the hurt transfer from last year, 4 defensive backs. All of the impact transfers are on defense besides QB and te...they are replacing guys that are now in the NFL in kalikmanis and fletcher..so it seems the coaches believe the lack of talent is on defense and it was addressed in the transfer portal. No they arent the big time ohio state, LSU type defensive lineman but no one expects to be competing with those teams right now. But this team is loaded with talent...
No one was impressed with the transfers that Cig brought in his first year. But he's a great coach and he turned them into great players.
Thats a list of42 “new players” not transfers. It includes 23 freshmen. Rutgers brought in pretty much the same amount of “new players”.
I've also found that since I became a grandpa, i dont really care as much about RU sports. Still interested of course and follow but I don't get nearly as annoyed when they lose. College sports has lost its luster watching a kid grow and get better over 4 or 5 years was part of that. The connection to the players isn't nearly what it was with so many leaving every year.
Fair enough. 19 transfers including the Heisman Winner and 23 Freshmen. Huge difference in quality due to the difference in NIL.
I only see 5 players on the transfer list from historical programs. All the other transfers were from the same pool of players we have access. And Cignetti is not on record saying they spent 30-40mm as you stated earlier. He actually says the exact opposite. Said they were closer to half the reported numbers.
Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti stated that the Hoosiers' 2025-26 championship roster NIL spending was "closer to $15M than $40M," contradicting claims that a $40M budget.
The huge difference in quality is due to a huge difference in the quality of the coaching. Cignetti didn't get 5 star bench warmers from the bluebloods. As was mentioned previously, he accessed the same talent pool RU did. Their transfers played better. Much better.
Sure he accessed the same talent pool but had a much larger budget to acquire players, which gave him a huge advantage.
I watched Mendoza almost single-handedly beat Miami while at Cal last year, before falling 39-38. Cignetti flat out said he looks for production. Mendoza was exceptionally productive and fit the profile he was looking for. Roman Hemby was very productive at Maryland. Pat Coogan was an exceptional lineman at Notre Dame. You’re right, hes not interested in bench warmers. He recruits starters, and then to his credit, takes them to the next level.
This year, he’s recruited QB Josh Hoover, who has already thrown for 9,629 yards and Nick Marsh, a projected first round draft pick by some. And then turbo Richard, a productive RB from Boston College. We don’t have budget to recruit similar caliber players.