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OT: Worn out by Rutgers sports

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Wagram97

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Apologies for breaking any posting rules, don't post much outside of Men's lacrosse. But I don't know about the rest of you but I'm worn out or worn down by Rutgers sports. Almost every other team in the B1G conference can hang their hat on at least one sport but us.

For UCLA, football may suck but hey, they just won a national championship in women's basketball and their men's soccer team won a conference tourney championship. Penn St may be rough for football and basketball but they have wrestling and and ice hockey. Nebraska has their amazing women's volleyball team. Maybe tough to be a Michigan State football fan but they have hockey and basketball to look forward to. Washington, yup, their women's soccer team is a conference champion and oh yeah, beat us for a conference title in women's crew. Northwestern has field hockey and women's lacrosse that are consistently at the top. On and on and on.

But us, even when we have a sport that breaks through, like field hockey, it's for one year and then back to meh.

Really hope Tate and Zinn can turn this around. Because I can't handle anymore chances of an epic win only for it to literally slip through our fingers. Sorry for the rant but just getting bummed out by Rutgers sports (if you are a men's lacrosse fan, you know why).
 
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ScarletKid2008

Heisman
Sep 8, 2006
8,039
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Agreed. Matches my sentiment for the last two years. Feeling extremely joyless as a RU fan ever since the first month of the Dylan/Ace season where it was obvious that was going towards crash and burn. Couldn’t even finish off a downtrotten Penn st team when the opportunity was as ripe as ever.

I’m really in particular turned off by the size and meaningless concept of conferences at this point. So dumb to have as many teams as there are, with no regional ties what so ever.
The big ten network can’t / won’t even cover half of its own conference anymore.
 
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RUPete90

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ScarletKid2008 said:
Agreed. Matches my sentiment for the last two years. Feeling extremely joyless as a RU fan ever since the first month of the Dylan/Ace season where it was obvious that was going towards crash and burn. Couldn’t even finish off a downtrotten Penn st team when the opportunity was as ripe as ever.

I’m really in particular turned off by the size and meaningless concept of conferences at this point. So dumb to have as many teams as there are, with no regional ties what so ever.
The big ten network can’t / won’t even cover half of its own conference anymore.
Click to expand...
Man, this post totally summed up my mindset about Rutgers sports and college sports in general right now. I renewed my football tickets but not sure why sometimes.
 
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RUAldo

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Wagram97 said:
Apologies for breaking any posting rules, don't post much outside of Men's lacrosse. But I don't know about the rest of you but I'm worn out or worn down by Rutgers sports. Almost every other team in the B1G conference can hang their hat on at least one sport but us.

For UCLA, football may suck but hey, they just won a national championship in women's basketball and their men's soccer team won a conference tourney championship. Penn St may be rough for football and basketball but they have wrestling and and ice hockey. Nebraska has their amazing women's volleyball team. Maybe tough to be a Michigan State football fan but they have hockey and basketball to look forward to. Washington, yup, their women's soccer team is a conference champion and oh yeah, beat us for a conference title in women's crew. Northwestern has field hockey and women's lacrosse that are consistently at the top. On and on and on.

But us, even when we have a sport that breaks through, like field hockey, it's for one year and then back to meh.

Really hope Tate and Zinn can turn this around. Because I can't handle anymore chances of an epic win only for it to literally slip through our fingers. Sorry for the rant but just getting bummed out by Rutgers sports (if you are a men's lacrosse fan, you know why).
Click to expand...
RU sports plagued by incompetent unqualified leadership. Barchi? Julie Hermann? Pat Hobbs? We had morons running the show for years. Who in their right mind would hire Hobbs, a guy that spent most of his career as faculty/dean at SH Law. What the hell does working at a law school have to do with running a huge state university athletic department?!?! It’s like hiring Schiano to run the Arts and Sciences Dept.
 
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scarletrat99

Sophomore
Oct 3, 2025
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Good OP and post--I have had the same thoughts for the past few weeks. It appears none of our major or Olympic sports--none--are doing very well. Put another way, what sport(s) are we known now for? It seems when RU did very well in Director Cup was an abberation and potentially explained by COVID?

When I was at RU in 90s, RU was defined by mens soccer and womens hoops. I missed early Wenzel but was there at MSG in 98 at BET semis and heartbreak in 99 missing NCAAs with year-end swoon. Womens hoops continued and rose further in first part of CVS career (think about what RU did under Fred G--getting a big time womens coach at Iowa, a big time major program) with 07 loss in title game, womens soccer rose to prominence, one 1 FF. So there was at least 1 sport you felt, okay, RU was a national power. Mens lax reached the FF as a 6 seed a few years ago. Football had 06, and **** the bed in 2006, 2011 and 2012 to each BCS.

Now, nothing.
 
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Bueller

Junior
Nov 28, 2025
251
252
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Sports in general have lost juice and faded to gray. I only watched one NFL game prior to playoffs and only watched one of those. I didn't miss it at all. All the commercials, TOs, flexings, bad officiating, sloppy play, Fanduel, bimbo questions, injuries, Bad Bunnies, contracts (DEs making 42 mil a season) sociopathic execs just took the joy away. NYGs were looking good for a bit but of course injuries had to end that (happens to NYGs a lot).

College isn't much better but I admit Indiana saved the season. Indiana and Olympics were new optimism imo. Nice to escape the usual 6 or so teams at the top every year. RU reminds me of relationship experts who say dont fear wife being angry - when she stops caring your in trouble. That's where I am with RU ball. I like coach and his players but I don't get going for seasons because I know the same 20 year flop, red zone offense will be sucking the joy
 
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Rhuarc

All-American
Jul 25, 2001
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I was a 4 sport season ticket holder, but this went down to 3 after cutting out mens hoops. Didn't watch one game this year and didn't really miss it. I would have considered myself a superfan just a few years ago. As I get older I don't have the time or energy to put into the team like I used to and get nothing positive out of it except for a hole in my wallet.

Football is still an event for me and I won't ever give up those tickets. I want success, but I enjoy the atmosphere more than anything.

Women's hoops and wrestling are small money asks and I will keep them for a long time as well. The lack of return on investment with few positive hopes for the future made mens hoops an easy one to bail on during a time of cost cutting for me.
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
88,582
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ScarletKid2008 said:
Agreed. Matches my sentiment for the last two years. Feeling extremely joyless as a RU fan ever since the first month of the Dylan/Ace season where it was obvious that was going towards crash and burn. Couldn’t even finish off a downtrotten Penn st team when the opportunity was as ripe as ever.

I’m really in particular turned off by the size and meaningless concept of conferences at this point. So dumb to have as many teams as there are, with no regional ties what so ever.
The big ten network can’t / won’t even cover half of its own conference anymore.
Click to expand...
As to OP, frankly couldn't care any less about any of the sports beyond the big three, football and men's/women's basketball, and the latter has been bad long enough, it comes down to two sports. It's nice of some non-revenue sport wins something, but in the grand scheme, football and men's basketball drives the bus.

Rutgers was already relegated to a parsimonious percentage of BTN air time. Seems like over 60% of air time is Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin. Seems that USC and UCLA get more air time than Rutgers even though they just joined the conference. RU's conference-mates probably like it that way. I recall back when Rutgers first joined the B1G, I met an older, polite gentleman on a vacation who was wearing Ohio State gear. He sincerely and non-sarcastically asked me if it was a joke that Rutgers had joined the B1G.

Oh, it's great we are part of the greatest conference raking in more money than the ACC. Oddly, we are losing more money than we were pre-2014.
 
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Wagram97

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What's depressing as a sports fan, is Rutgers is the only school in the conference that has not won a national championship in any sport while a member of the conference. Even the newest members. UCLA has a women's basketball championship, USC won for women's track & field, Washington recently won men's soccer and Oregon won for men's track & field while members of the B1G conference.

Of all the schools, we're only 1 of 4 teams that did not finish in 1st place, win a conference tourney championship, or currently be in 1st place for the teams that have standings or conference tourneys for 2025-2026. The other 3 are Illini, Iowa and Minnesota - and they all have great seasons recently in other sports.
 
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newell138

newell138

Heisman
Aug 1, 2001
36,898
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RUAldo said:
RU sports plagued by incompetent unqualified leadership. Barchi? Julie Hermann? Pat Hobbs? We had morons running the show for years. Who in their right mind would hire Hobbs, a guy that spent most of his career as faculty/dean at SH Law. What the hell does working at a law school have to do with running a huge state university athletic department?!?! It’s like hiring Schiano to run the Arts and Sciences Dept.
Click to expand...
NJ itself suffers from the same fate of poor leadership for so many decades
 
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RUskoolie

RUskoolie

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Aug 1, 2007
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Rutgers sports are not good because their fans and alums don't want them to be good.

Being good in any sport takes money. Most of you point to someone else to help with that.

Meanwhile every other fanbase (literally every single one) understands this concept and gives and OMG...they get results what a concept.
 
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cubuffsdoug_rivals

cubuffsdoug_rivals

Heisman
Apr 8, 2002
15,470
26,527
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Wagram97 said:
Apologies for breaking any posting rules, don't post much outside of Men's lacrosse. But I don't know about the rest of you but I'm worn out or worn down by Rutgers sports. Almost every other team in the B1G conference can hang their hat on at least one sport but us.

For UCLA, football may suck but hey, they just won a national championship in women's basketball and their men's soccer team won a conference tourney championship. Penn St may be rough for football and basketball but they have wrestling and and ice hockey. Nebraska has their amazing women's volleyball team. Maybe tough to be a Michigan State football fan but they have hockey and basketball to look forward to. Washington, yup, their women's soccer team is a conference champion and oh yeah, beat us for a conference title in women's crew. Northwestern has field hockey and women's lacrosse that are consistently at the top. On and on and on.

But us, even when we have a sport that breaks through, like field hockey, it's for one year and then back to meh.

Really hope Tate and Zinn can turn this around. Because I can't handle anymore chances of an epic win only for it to literally slip through our fingers. Sorry for the rant but just getting bummed out by Rutgers sports (if you are a men's lacrosse fan, you know why).
Click to expand...
Rutgers soccer (men) won the B1G tournament in 2022. :LOL:
 
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Wagram97

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cubuffsdoug_rivals said:
Rutgers soccer (men) won the B1G tournament in 2022. :LOL:
Click to expand...
Sure, but that goes to my 2nd point about the breakthrough, that it never seems to carry over to multiple years. In 2023 they finished tied for 7th place.

I'm still in the corporate world, few more years till retirement. My issue is that most of my follow partners are also grads from the B1G conference schools, especially after the west coast expansion. We have Michigan, OSU, Purdue, USC, Illini, Iowa, Northwestern and Penn St well represented. The guy in the office to my left, a good buddy of mine, is a Michigan grad and tomorrow I'm going to hear about it nonstop it if they win (thankfully he kept quiet for a bit after that Sherrone Moore nonsense). I still recall being on an early morning calls the next day, two years in a row, and getting to brag to my friend the Purdue booster - like to be able to do that more often.
 
Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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Adam Sandler GIF
 
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RU#1fan

RU#1fan

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RUAldo said:
RU sports plagued by incompetent unqualified leadership. Barchi? Julie Hermann? Pat Hobbs? We had morons running the show for years. Who in their right mind would hire Hobbs, a guy that spent most of his career as faculty/dean at SH Law. What the hell does working at a law school have to do with running a huge state university athletic department?!?! It’s like hiring Schiano to run the Arts and Sciences Dept.
Click to expand...
And there were many on this Board praising his hire.
 
RUTGERS95

RUTGERS95

Heisman
Sep 28, 2005
31,041
44,350
113
well OP, you can do what should be done about it, donate monies to your kid's school or your other alm maters until you see meaningful change that will yield the results you want. Rutgers is going nowhere with Greg, Pike, Owens.........
 
K

knightfan7

Heisman
Jul 30, 2003
95,408
69,227
113
Wagram97 said:
Apologies for breaking any posting rules, don't post much outside of Men's lacrosse. But I don't know about the rest of you but I'm worn out or worn down by Rutgers sports. Almost every other team in the B1G conference can hang their hat on at least one sport but us.

For UCLA, football may suck but hey, they just won a national championship in women's basketball and their men's soccer team won a conference tourney championship. Penn St may be rough for football and basketball but they have wrestling and and ice hockey. Nebraska has their amazing women's volleyball team. Maybe tough to be a Michigan State football fan but they have hockey and basketball to look forward to. Washington, yup, their women's soccer team is a conference champion and oh yeah, beat us for a conference title in women's crew. Northwestern has field hockey and women's lacrosse that are consistently at the top. On and on and on.

But us, even when we have a sport that breaks through, like field hockey, it's for one year and then back to meh.

Really hope Tate and Zinn can turn this around. Because I can't handle anymore chances of an epic win only for it to literally slip through our fingers. Sorry for the rant but just getting bummed out by Rutgers sports (if you are a men's lacrosse fan, you know why).
Click to expand...
To add, UCLA just received all 30 1st place votes in Baseball Poll. Northwestern is defending NCAA Womens Golf champ. Major and minor sports across the board, there little for Rutgers to crow about.
 
Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
88,582
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DHajekRC1984 said:
well I guess it is still better than being 1 of the 4 west teams not even on it.. :)
Click to expand...
You win a prize. I just noticed that myself, but posting late at night will do that! Here's the full list. Funny how USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are at the top. Rutgers is at the edge of being dumped into the water.

1775572334429.png
 
C

ClassOf02v.2

Heisman
Sep 30, 2010
13,736
15,154
103
Knight Shift said:
You win a prize. I just noticed that myself, but posting late at night will do that! Here's the full list. Funny how USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are at the top. Rutgers is at the edge of being dumped into the water.

View attachment 1247528
Click to expand...
If BTN had any decency or sense of fairness whatsoever, they’d have an east to west version of this commercial too where RU is at the top of the heap. Then we’d finally be relevant!
 
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RUAldo

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knightfan7 said:
To add, UCLA just received all 30 1st place votes in Baseball Poll. Northwestern is defending NCAA Womens Golf champ. Major and minor sports across the board, there little for Rutgers to crow about.
Click to expand...
Have any schools done feasibility studies on reallocating a huge chunk of football money to other sports where winning a NC has a higher likelihood of success? Does winning NCs in sports like baseball/softball, lax, wrestling, etc. move the financial needle?
 
LETSGORU91

LETSGORU91

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Jul 9, 2025
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RW90 said:
I get the geography, but does anyone else find it somewhat ironically cringey seeing RU alone at the bottom of the B1G banner twitter post?
Click to expand...
B1G saved the best for last? If it is of any consolation, PSU is near the bottom as well.
ClassOf02v.2 said:
If BTN had any decency or sense of fairness whatsoever, they’d have an east to west version of this commercial too where RU is at the top of the heap. Then we’d finally be relevant!
Click to expand...
Ha! I'm thinking if there were an east to west video, each successive school would be stacked upon the others, relegating us to the same bottom of the pile.
 
e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
114,264
53,334
102
RUAldo said:
Have any schools done feasibility studies on reallocating a huge chunk of football money to other sports where winning a NC has a higher likelihood of success? Does winning NCs in sports like baseball/softball, lax, wrestling, etc. move the financial needle?
Click to expand...
No.

Like Mickey Mantle said when Pete Rose set the record: “If I made my career hitting singles, I’d be wearing a dress.”

It does not, as no one cares.

And as I said in a similar thread on this topic, this coming from someone who wants Rutgers to do well in everything, athletics and academics.
 
Caliknight

Caliknight

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Sep 21, 2001
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All comes down to money. Fortunately, Keli gets that part. Outside of football we don't have one program that comes close to investing what our conference peers do.
 
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knightfan7

Heisman
Jul 30, 2003
95,408
69,227
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RUAldo said:
Have any schools done feasibility studies on reallocating a huge chunk of football money to other sports where winning a NC has a higher likelihood of success? Does winning NCs in sports like baseball/softball, lax, wrestling, etc. move the financial needle?
Click to expand...
It's mostly from donations from individuals with an interest in the sport. I read a while back that NW's golf teams received large sums from 2 donors a few years ago, 1 of whom was a well known NJ Sr Am golfer.

As I posted the Women's team is defending Nat'l Champ and the Men are an annual NCAA tourney participant.

Illinois Golf is swimming in cash. They recently built a 6 hole practice facility that's only available to the teams. This goes along with 2 courses available and a indoor facility that was 100% funded privately.

Men are an annual top 10 team, usually the only "cold weather" state.

Can't speak with any knowledge about UCLA Baseball.
 
Caliknight

Caliknight

Hall of Famer
Sep 21, 2001
196,403
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UCLA isn't much different than Rutgers. They have a bit more funding from alums but they face some similar issues. What works for them is location. That's really helpful when it comes to sports like softball.
 
bac2therac

bac2therac

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Jul 30, 2001
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Caliknight said:
UCLA isn't much different than Rutgers. They have a bit more funding from alums but they face some similar issues. What works for them is location. That's really helpful when it comes to sports like softball.
Click to expand...
They arent like Rutgers. They have had much historical success in athletics and just won a national championship in womens hoops
 
Caliknight

Caliknight

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bac2therac said:
They arent like Rutgers. They have had much historical success in athletics and just won a national championship in womens hoops
Click to expand...
If you know anyone who has kids at UCLA and went to Rutgers, you'd understand. Their historical success is entirely based on location. Their alumni base isn't terribly different than ours. See their facilities for starters. Dreadful.
 
MADHAT1

MADHAT1

Heisman
Apr 1, 2003
31,405
16,247
113
Rutgers sports have usually disappointed me every year, but I always feel next year will be better and sometimes that does come true..
So since the Dr. John/Burns years, Young days of glory and Teresa's championship team along with winners under Fred Hill Sr. I'll continue rooting for RU even though I get depressed and worn out seeing RU fall short of expectations of greatness at every turn, but each new season renews my hope my wait till next year cry will be answered.(y)
 
Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
88,582
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Caliknight said:
If you know anyone who has kids at UCLA and went to Rutgers, you'd understand. Their historical success is entirely based on location. Their alumni base isn't terribly different than ours. See their facilities for starters. Dreadful.
Click to expand...
Visited UCLA in 2018. Beautiful campus. Liked it much better than Berkeley. We asked a couple of students what's the major difference between Berkeley and UCLA, and without hesitation, they said "We have more fun here." Oldest was admitted to UCLA for comp sci, but not Berkeley. Opted for Rutgers, which was a good move, and led to landing a fantastic job upon graduation.
Football game attendance for UCLA seems poor. Basketball facility seemed old.
 
M

mdk02

Heisman
Aug 18, 2011
26,674
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Caliknight said:
If you know anyone who has kids at UCLA and went to Rutgers, you'd understand. Their historical success is entirely based on location. Their alumni base isn't terribly different than ours. See their facilities for starters. Dreadful.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I got the impression over the years that, because it's private, USC alums are more likely to donate and (some) donate big. UCLA alums, although there are exceptions, expect the state to provide funding.
 
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