Chris Carlin is back with the second edition of Scarlet Table, a sit down with University President William Tate IV and AD Keli Zinn. Depending on your perspective, watching this will either make you excited about the future of Rutgers Athletics or sick at how previous administrations (maxbe one in particular that rhymes with cobs) squandered opportunities and left Rutgers in the financial dust. Or maybe both at the same time.
The casual meeting, held at New Brunswick’s Steak House 85, covers a variety
of topics, from the University commencement to NIL to facility renovations to, well, it covers a lot. And it is a shared conversation with both Zinn and Tate offering a variety of thoughts on life and times surrounding the State University of New Jersey.
Watching this presentation, it becomes obvious that a university president and its athletic director have to be more than just on the same page. They need to agree on a vision, on a path forward, on what is important to the university and its athletic program. It is quite evident that Zinn and Tate are there.
Let me state that in my long history with Rutgers – I’ve been around for seven of the 22 presidents, including Tate – and I’ve had mixed feelings about the people who have led my alma mater. Most recently, I liked Jonathan Holloway. I thought he was the first president to actually and actively defend athletics. But, for reasons we won’t get into here, he left after his five year term. And while it took almost a year to find his replacement in Tate, again from my perspective, the powers-that-be found the right person for this time.
In the conversation with Carlin, Tate talks about walking down College Avenue (I never saw a president walk down College Ave) and meeting a student, getting into a conversation about the kid’s research into pediatric oncology, inviting him and his research cadre to his office for lunch….okay, you’re getting the idea. Tate seems to be a very hands-on person, very engaging, and uber enthusiastic about the people, the students, at Rutgers and how all of this is a part of the University’s image that needs to be promoted.
As part of that, Rutgers undertook a survey of New Jersey businesses and other entities in the state. A significant majority had a very good impression of RU. Employers were much more than just satisfied with the quality of graduates that they were hiring. And did you know that for every dollar that is invested in Rutgers, it returns $11.49 in economic impact to the state (I think Tate rounded that up to $11.50); who wouldn’t want that ROI?
Zinn was just as enthusiastic. I was impressed that the first thing she talked about wasn’t wins and losses – I know the curmudgeons among you are saying that would focus too much on the “Ls” – but on how athletics prepares students for life after college.
She talked about Scarlet Knight Enterprises, the mechanism by which Rutgers can monetize itself and fund the NIL goals of athletes. And the President talked about athletes who have been able to do NIL on their own – yes, he referenced Olivia Dunne late of LSU and how she did this on her own. But other athletes need help, help that Rutgers can now provide through the internal mechanisms that are now in place. Tate basically said that, without trying to minimize or be overly critical of those who served before him and Zinn, Rutgers dropped the ball by not being aggressive in doing this; if you don’t do this in the current environment, you can’t survive. Period.
Keli Zinn talked about renovations to both Jersey Mike’s Arena and SHI Stadium. A lot of what is being discussed is behind the scenes, but there are teams working on both and it looks promising. Much of what is being discussed focuses on generating income; it does little good to build something that is, bottom line, simply an expense without a substantial return. Late summer might be the time to hear something about this.
There’s a lot more, and if you have a spare 42 minutes, it is definitely worth your time to watch. It’s nice to see competence tied to enthusiasm tied to a vision. A vision that is realistic and can make a difference.
