Rutgers officials say benefits of Big Ten membership go beyond athletics

[jostar1]

I thought this story was interesting. The Rutgers' AD, Tim Pernetti, kept in touch with Delany every week. It makes we wonder what UConn is doing, or what they did.


"Reflecting on that tumultuous time, McCormick said in a recent interview: "I don't want to claim I could completely foresee what would happen, but yes, I was optimistic. By that time, Tim and I were already deep in conversation with representatives from the Big Ten. They had not yet offered us an invitation, but we knew they were well aware of our academic reputation, our proximity to New York, the $102 million we had just invested into the football stadium, the growth of the program under Coach Schiano as well as the general excellence of the university.

"We felt, and they gave us reason to feel, that Rutgers would be a good fit for the Big Ten Conference. We were cautiously optimistic. Tim kept in touch with Jim Delany every week. And they knew each other from back in Tim's television days, his pre-Rutgers days. So we didn't know for sure, but we were cautiously optimistic.''

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...-ten-membership-go-beyond-athletics/11794299/

 

[sportsart]

....and this is what he wore for his weekly contacts.

 

[jostar1]

I hope Warde can get down on his knees, but I kind of doubt it.

 

[Doggie Style]

I think it is safe to say Susan is locked in from top to bottom at this point regarding what direction we are heading! In addition, there is no doubt Warde is ALL OVER his B1G good ol boy network in his contact list. D is gonna get this program back to where it belongs so we should be able to get to the level Schiano had RU without a problem under his leadership. So when we announce our expansion plans for The Rent, I'll be a believer!!!!!

 

[freescooter]

I think it is safe to say Susan is locked in from top to bottom at this point regarding what direction we are heading! In addition, there is no doubt Warde is ALL OVER his B1G good ol boy network in his contact list. D is gonna get this program back to where it belongs so we should be able to get to the level Schiano had RU without a problem under his leadership. So when we announce our expansion plans for The Rent, I'll be a believer!!!!!

My guess is that Susan gives not 1 about the BIG or anything else. She has made it perfectly clear that she is thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to be in the AAC with our equals, you know schools like Memphis and Central Florida, that make Louisville look like friggin' Harvard. And Warde is no doubt monitoring the situation like a sumbitch.

I have no doubt that Susan Herbst is a going ot be one of the best presidents in UCONN history. She will be remembered with the likes of Homer Babbidge and Albert Jorgensen as people who set the University on a new direction. But athletics just isn't her thing. It would be fine if we had a Jurich or even a Pernetti in the AD's chair. But we don't. Warde seems to have his strong points, I like the 3* new coaches he has hired, but beyond that he is clueless.

* Well, he hired 2 of them. he'll get credit for the 3rd when he is considered for his next job, I hope in the very near future.

 

[Husky25]

My guess is that Susan gives not 1 about the BIG or anything else. She has made it perfectly clear that she is thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to be in the AAC with our equals, you know schools like Memphis and Central Florida, that make Louisville look like friggin' Harvard. And Warde is no doubt monitoring the situation like a sumbitch.

I have no doubt that Susan Herbst is a going ot be one of the best presidents in UCONN history. She will be remembered with the likes of Homer Babbidge and Albert Jorgensen as people who set the University on a new direction. But athletics just isn't her thing. It would be fine if we had a Jurich or even a Pernetti in the AD's chair. But we don't. Warde seems to have his strong points, I like the 3* new coaches he has hired, but beyond that he is clueless.

* Well, he hired 2 of them. he'll get credit for the 3rd when he is considered for his next job, I hope in the very near future.

Does the sun ever come out today in your world or is it always tomorrow?

 

[freescooter]

I'm pumped about the upcoming football season. Love Diaco and I htink he will turn things around. this year might be asking a bit much...too much wreckage to clear up before moving forward but I think we're heading in the right direction and by next season we'll be on the way. I'm also pumped about Hockey East. Really pumped. I'm just not confident that Warde has either the connections or the right skill set to get us where we need to be going and Herbst, based on the things I've heard her say, doesn't really have that much depth of knowledge nor does she care to get too involved. We might get lucky somehow...My hope is the Big 12 gets forced to expand in a couple of years, which I think will happen the first time a power conference champ loses in a league championship and a Big 12 team gets into the playoffs, or the BIG gets greedy and forces the ACC to act in a panic move. But that is what it will be. A lucky break. I just hope that Warde isn't off monitoring the heck out of the latest offering at Dunkin' donuts when the chance arrives.

 

[Dooley]

My guess is that Susan gives not 1 about the BIG or anything else. She has made it perfectly clear that she is thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to be in the AAC with our equals, you know schools like Memphis and Central Florida, that make Louisville look like friggin' Harvard. And Warde is no doubt monitoring the situation like a sumbitch.

I have no doubt that Susan Herbst is a going ot be one of the best presidents in UCONN history. She will be remembered with the likes of Homer Babbidge and Albert Jorgensen as people who set the University on a new direction. But athletics just isn't her thing. It would be fine if we had a Jurich or even a Pernetti in the AD's chair. But we don't. Warde seems to have his strong points, I like the 3* new coaches he has hired, but beyond that he is clueless.

* Well, he hired 2 of them. he'll get credit for the 3rd when he is considered for his next job, I hope in the very near future.

Seriously? In your head, how much blame does Jeff Hathaway get? How about UCONN's previous Presidents who all did nothing to improve our AAU profile and increase our endowment?

 

[Plains&Lakes]

Yes. Susan Herbst and all major Presidents and BOTs know the academic/endowment raising potential of high-profile sports programs in high profile leagues. Free Scooter, please do a web search using the key words academics, Big Ten and CIC.

 

[Plains&Lakes]

With its location, state and current academic drive and basketball programs, the only thing that can stop UConn from going into the Big Ten are two immediately-willing Big Ten-preferred (Not all) schools, or another major recession.

 

[freescooter]

Seriously? In your head, how much blame does Jeff Hathaway get? How about UCONN's previous Presidents who all did nothing to improve our AAU profile and increase our endowment?

Seriously? Look some of our previous presidents were ciphers (I'm looking at you Glenn Ferguson, and you too DiBiaggio) but really,to some entent Hartley and to a greater extent extent Phil Austin, through the UCONN 2000 and 21st Century programs created the environment that allowed Herbst to move in the direction of major upgrading of academic programs and growth of the endowment. Heck, before UCONN 2000, I'm not even sure UConn had an endowment to speak of. It had some special donation funds, but its fundraising programs were really not significant. Under Hartley and especially Austin, we got the mechanisms in place to create a true endowment. You have to have an endowment before you can grow an endowment. And you can't attract top flight faculty when you have labs with leaky roofs, and crumbling academic buildings that lack modern equipment. I included Jorgensen in my list of top presidents because he presided over the physical development of the University in the 50s and 60s from a modest institution to a significant one. Babbidge really reset the UConn view of itself from a modest institution with a relatively low level of ambition to one that looked at itself as a major university. He upgraded the faculty significantly from what it had been and improved the level of research. He got UConn to look at a different group of peers, rather than URI, UConn began looking at Vermont for example, which at the time was considered the top public university in New England and among the top in the US. That was what Homer wanted UConn to look like. Without him, UConn is URI. I guess if your knowledge of UConn goes back to the first national championship in basketball in 1999, you would think that nobody did anything before that. But there were several presidents in the 2nd half of the 20th Century who really laid the groundwork. To go forward we need someone who can build effectively on that groundwork and I think Susan will be terrific at it. Already has been, really. Athletics, though, not so much. but what can you expect from someone who says her favorite college sport is mens lacrosse?

 

[Fishy]

You are a raging idiot.

 

[freescooter]

Yes. Susan Herbst and all major Presidents and BOTs know the academic/endowment raising potential of high-profile sports programs in high profile leagues. Free Scooter, please do a web search using the key words academics, Big Ten and CIC.

this is much like the Flutie Factor, which has been demonstrably shown to be false (BC actually had more growth in its applications before Flutie's famous play).It is what Stephen Colbert would call an example of truthiness, something you know in your gut, not from the facts. Here's a quote from a major review of all the studies of the impact of athletics on university fundraising prepared by the US Department of Education Commission on Opportunities in Athletics. It reviews studies on this subject going back to the 1930s.
Well respected scholars (Frey, 1985; Gerdy, 2002; Zimbalist, 1999, 2000; Sack &
Staurowsky, 1998; Shulman & Bowen, 2001; Sperber, 2000; Thelin, 1994)) who have
intensively studied intercollegiate athletics and its relationship with higher education
have examined this body of work in total and concluded that there is little if any
empirical support for the notion that athletic success translates into increased levels of alumni support to institutions of higher learning. In 1985, James Frey, a sociologist from the University of Nevada-Los Vegas characterized this as the “winning-team” myth.
But P&L, don't let the reality get in the way of what you want to believe.
Oh, and here's a nice quote from former Michigan State and UConn President John DiBiaggio: the “myth of institutional dependency on athletic revenues therefore
on athletic victories- needs to be aggressively refuted” (as quoted in Zimbalist,
2000). Last I looked Michigan State was in the Big 10. Pretty much every study on this subject comes to the same conclusion...there is some increase in giving to athletics after particularly successful seasons, but it is not generally translated into an overall benefit to the University or its academic fundraising and it is a 1-shot event anyway (some folks may give after a special season such as a national title, but that doesn't translate into long term support.)

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Seriously? Look some of our previous presidents were ciphers (I'm looking at you Glenn Ferguson, and you too DiBiaggio) but really,to some entent Hartley and to a greater extent extent Phil Austin, through the UCONN 2000 and 21st Century programs created the environment that allowed Herbst to move in the direction of major upgrading of academic programs and growth of the endowment. Heck, before UCONN 2000, I'm not even sure UConn had an endowment to speak of. It had some special donation funds, but its fundraising programs were really not significant. Under Hartley and especially Austin, we got the mechanisms in place to create a true endowment. You have to have an endowment before you can grow an endowment. And you can't attract top flight faculty when you have labs with leaky roofs, and crumbling academic buildings that lack modern equipment. I included Jorgensen in my list of top presidents because he presided over the physical development of the University in the 50s and 60s from a modest institution to a significant one. Babbidge really reset the UConn view of itself from a modest institution with a relatively low level of ambition to one that looked at itself as a major university. He upgraded the faculty significantly from what it had been and improved the level of research. He got UConn to look at a different group of peers, rather than URI, UConn began looking at Vermont for example, which at the time was considered the top public university in New England and among the top in the US. That was what Homer wanted UConn to look like. Without him, UConn is URI. I guess if your knowledge of UConn goes back to the first national championship in basketball in 1999, you would think that nobody did anything before that. But there were several presidents in the 2nd half of the 20th Century who really laid the groundwork. To go forward we need someone who can build effectively on that groundwork and I think Susan will be terrific at it. Already has been, really. Athletics, though, not so much. but what can you expect from someone who says her favorite college sport is mens lacrosse?

Didn't Homer have a friend in the Gov's office that served in about the same time frame?

 

[Plains&Lakes]

this is much like the Flutie Factor, which has been demonstrably shown to be false (BC actually had more growth in its applications before Flutie's famous play).It is what Stephen Colbert would call an example of truthiness, something you know in your gut, not from the facts. Here's a quote from a major review of all the studies of the impact of athletics on university fundraising prepared by the US Department of Education Commission on Opportunities in Athletics. It reviews studies on this subject going back to the 1930s.
Well respected scholars (Frey, 1985; Gerdy, 2002; Zimbalist, 1999, 2000; Sack &
Staurowsky, 1998; Shulman & Bowen, 2001; Sperber, 2000; Thelin, 1994)) who have
intensively studied intercollegiate athletics and its relationship with higher education
have examined this body of work in total and concluded that there is little if any
empirical support for the notion that athletic success translates into increased levels of alumni support to institutions of higher learning. In 1985, James Frey, a sociologist from the University of Nevada-Los Vegas characterized this as the “winning-team” myth.
But P&L, don't let the reality get in the way of what you want to believe.
Oh, and here's a nice quote from former Michigan State and UConn President John DiBiaggio: the “myth of institutional dependency on athletic revenues therefore
on athletic victories- needs to be aggressively refuted” (as quoted in Zimbalist,
2000). Last I looked Michigan State was in the Big 10. Pretty much every study on this subject comes to the same conclusion...there is some increase in giving to athletics after particularly successful seasons, but it is not generally translated into an overall benefit to the University or its academic fundraising and it is a 1-shot event anyway (some folks may give after a special season such as a national title, but that doesn't translate into long term support.)

In the free spirit of the exchange of ideas, nice post. One can also make the argument that the academics of most division 1A schools are well above the national university median (many are in the top 200 and there are thousands of universities). It certainly can be reasonably argued that the schools were good due to state political and endowment funding before they had big athletic departments, and with good exisiting academic standards and reputation, people wanted to go there and some of those people are (and were) Athletes.

 

[buddy]

Seriously? Look some of our previous presidents were ciphers (I'm looking at you Glenn Ferguson, and you too DiBiaggio) but really,to some entent Hartley and to a greater extent extent Phil Austin, through the UCONN 2000 and 21st Century programs created the environment that allowed Herbst to move in the direction of major upgrading of academic programs and growth of the endowment. Heck, before UCONN 2000, I'm not even sure UConn had an endowment to speak of. It had some special donation funds, but its fundraising programs were really not significant. Under Hartley and especially Austin, we got the mechanisms in place to create a true endowment. You have to have an endowment before you can grow an endowment. And you can't attract top flight faculty when you have labs with leaky roofs, and crumbling academic buildings that lack modern equipment. I included Jorgensen in my list of top presidents because he presided over the physical development of the University in the 50s and 60s from a modest institution to a significant one. Babbidge really reset the UConn view of itself from a modest institution with a relatively low level of ambition to one that looked at itself as a major university. He upgraded the faculty significantly from what it had been and improved the level of research. He got UConn to look at a different group of peers, rather than URI, UConn began looking at Vermont for example, which at the time was considered the top public university in New England and among the top in the US. That was what Homer wanted UConn to look like. Without him, UConn is URI. I guess if your knowledge of UConn goes back to the first national championship in basketball in 1999, you would think that nobody did anything before that. But there were several presidents in the 2nd half of the 20th Century who really laid the groundwork. To go forward we need someone who can build effectively on that groundwork and I think Susan will be terrific at it. Already has been, really. Athletics, though, not so much. but what can you expect from someone who says her favorite college sport is mens lacrosse?

I think it is safe to say Susan is locked in from top to bottom at this point regarding what direction we are heading! In addition, there is no doubt Warde is ALL OVER his B1G good ol boy network in his contact list. D is gonna get this program back to where it belongs so we should be able to get to the level Schiano had RU without a problem under his leadership. So when we announce our expansion plans for The Rent, I'll be a believer!!!!!

It's nice to have a dream, cause if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?

 

[Nostical]

Empirical evidence is all fine and good but I'll also take a large dose of anecdotal evidence for good measure. Despite what the esteemed researchers say, there is a huge contingent of folks who attended this University in the past, before the NIT win, who were frankly not as proud of their alma mater. They rarely wore their colors or their caps with pride. They said they attended Connecticut rather than UConn, feeling it was not as prestigious a designation. That also goes for the legislators who passed UConn 2000. The rationale for the State's unprecedented investment was certainly grounded in logic and need, but the impetus for it came from a different place. It was carried on the shoulders of athletes who appeared on national TV and were winning championships. Today I see UConn on all kinds of paraphernalia all over the world. There is unprecedented pride which absolutely converts to donations and support. And should we one day be able to add a B1G or ACC logo to our jerseys, you just watch how the money flows. Think I'm exaggerating? Next time your asked in a group setting what conference UConn is in, watch what happens. Pay close attention as you lower your voice, shuffle your feet and mutter AAC. Then you'll get it. It's those research experts who don't.

 

[freescooter]

Nos,
There was another great quote from that piece I referenced. If I recall it was from a former President of VaTech. To paraphrase, he said "Even though it isn't true, most people think it is, so I have to act as if it is." Your and P&L's comments show exactly why that is the case.

 

[upstater]

President Hogan was so bad at upping UConn's AAU credentials and endowment (i.e. the things that the B1G is looking for in a prospective school), so bad in fact that he was hired...

... by a B1G school!

 

[freescooter]

Hogan came from a Big school, too. I originally thought he was a terrific choice and represented a big step. But I think in the end he and UConn were a bad fit and he looked to return to the mid-west as quickly as possible.