Love this kind of stuff.
First ... there is NOTHING done at Rutgers that tells you that they can build a Program in a real sport. That is what Delaney & their due diligence should have turned up.
Comparative? Calhoun build a 4 NC Power from the backwoods of Storrs; an amazing feat. In the bigtime sport. Auriemma, given the keys, built the BEST Women's Program in the history of college sports and still has another decade to run. There is nothing at Rutgers near that. In fact, their Mens BB, excepting 1976, has always been bottom quartile of whatever league they are in. Stringer is what you say: she has gotten lost in the woods in the last half dozen years.
Look more closely: UConn Baseball is the finest Northeastern Program. With significant challenges, they rose above everybody from Maryland through NE. UConn Men's Ice Hockey went from 0 to top 10 attendance amongst the 60 Programs in College Hockey in one year. Solid fanbase; good recruiting area; and now, we are going to see this thing grow. Women's Field Hockey - one of the best Programs. Men's Soccer - traditionally one of the leaders in attendance since the early 1970s; yearly participant in NCAA tournament. Women's Soccer - darn good. There seems to be nothing Rutgers does that UConn does not do better. Wrestling? Frankly ... most of the Universities have dropped wrestling. I bet the reality is not what he claims. Do they ever have ONE wrestler win his class?
I happen to believe our Football and theirs are comparable. We just came from a different origin. As much as they claim all this attendance success yada yada ... in 2003 as both Programs were in the NEW BE, they really struggled to get 20,000 for a game I went to versus Syracuse. I think they have a natural recruiting advantage; one that Schiano really exploited. Still, I think they have a scary culture that came to the fore in this past year. Too many kids have been involved in violence, drunk driving, burglaries and skating out the door. If that is what New Brunswick/Piscataway gives you, then I think any conference would prefer to be in the Storrs woods.
Frankly ... this UConn campus is not going to look the same very soon to whomever at Rutgers has been there in the last few years. It was a cow town. It is now a Globally ranked University that is rising.
