Rutgers president William F. Tate IV has written a column for NJ.com addressing why Rutgers joined the Big Ten in the first place, how it continues to benefit from Big ten membership and the misconceptions
that have spawned from NJ.com’s recent series of articles addressing the “78 million dollar” budget deficit Rutgers Athletics ran up last fiscal year.
In the article, Tate makes the argument that being in the Big Ten has dramatically increased Rutgers’ standing on the national stage and that being a member is extremely beneficial to the university. According to Tate, when Rutgers decided to join the Big Ten, the university sought to align itself with other schools in the conference and it was this alignment that allowed the opportunity to advance the university’s national profile and academic mission, while at the same time achieving long-term financial sustainability.
He then proceeded to break down Rutgers’ progress at achieving those three aims. One point he made is that Rutgers took a major leap forward in national university rankings after the school joined the Big ten, meaning that the university’s national profile went up.
“One measure of national profile that provides a trend analysis for the period 2012-2025 is U.S. News and World Report’s ranking of national universities. When Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2012, its ranking was 68th among national universities, and it ranked 25th among public universities. Since joining the Big Ten, Rutgers University leadership has worked to align the institution’s national ranking with the expectations of membership in a premier academic conference. In 2025, Rutgers ranked 42nd among national research universities and 15th among public universities, its highest ranking ever in this category.“
He also provided evidence how being in the Big Ten has advanced the universities academic mission.
“Total research funding rose from $614 million in 2014 to $993 million in 2025. With nearly $1 billion in external research funding, Rutgers’ research productivity is associated with an estimated $2 billion to $5 billion in long-term economic value, consistent with decades of evidence that public investment in university research returns $2 to $5 for every dollar invested.”
Finally, he talked about how being in the Big Ten helps Rutgers Athletics in terms of long term financial sustainability.
“Today, more than half of the athletic department’s revenue comes from Big Ten distributions, while ticket sales and student fees have dramatically dropped as a percentage of revenue since 2012.”
He also pointed out that while the athletics budget deficit is a problem, the issue is not as severe as the headlines that have been circulating about it, and that they have a plan to do something about it.
“The widely reported Rutgers “$78 million deficit” for fiscal year 2025 includes several forms of support, including $7 million in university funding, $8 million in state support, and $15.8 million in student fees.
The deficit figures reflect NCAA accounting rules, not how most athletic departments describe their actual operating results. When these sources of support are counted as revenue, the financial picture of Rutgers athletics is more accurate and less dramatic.“
“The fix is not cost-cutting alone. We have an athletics enterprise and marketplace that requires a disciplined strategy with capped university support while aggressively expanding premium seating, corporate partnerships, and donor revenue. Our team is hard at work implementing this strategy.”
He ended the article by adding a fourth aim to the university’s goals as a Big Ten member.
“Win.”
All of the quotes used were taken directly from Tate’s column.
President Tate likely penned this article in order to clear the air to those in the university’s social circles that believe that Rutgers is better off in another conference, such as the ACC. These people fail to realize the benefits that Rutgers gets as a whole just from being a member of the Big Ten. He also likely wrote this article in order to clear the air about Rutgers running a “78 million dollar budget deficit,” which isn’t exactly the case, and to show that they have a plan to turn that number around and are committed to seeing this university be successful on and off the field.
In short, a lot of critics used the numbers reported by NJ.com to argue that Rutgers University does not belong in the Big Ten, or that they should switch conference. This article is President Tate’s rebuttal.
To view the entire article written by president Tate, Please click here.
