Will the Big Ten make Rutgers rich? Don’t count on it: Opinion

By Mark R. Killingsworth

The Rutgers University athletic program isn’t just a public relations catastrophe; it’s also an economic disaster. Expenses ran ahead of revenues by $28 million in 2011-12. The cumulative shortfall since 2005 is $190 million.

The university covers the deficit with subsidies from discretionary funds and student fees. President Robert Barchi conceded to The Star-Ledger that athletics is currently “siphoning dollars off from the academic mission.”

But will Rutgers’s entry into the Big Ten make the school rich?

Barchi and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Richard Edwards think so. Edwards told the university’s senate that Rutgers athletics will be “self-sustaining” in five to eight years. Barchi told The Star-Ledger that “I can see us moving to budget neutrality in six years.”

Don’t believe it. It’s fiscal fantasy, with some creative accounting thrown in.

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