By Keith Sargeant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
PISCATAWAY — Last Thursday, Rutgers athletics director Julie Hermann presented the university Board of Trustees with a power-point plan that, she said, “was an unvarnished assessment of where Rutgers Athletics stands.”
”There are still areas where we need to do better, and we will,” Hermann said through a spokesperson Wednesday evening, hours after NJ Advance Media obtained a 22-page Rutgers Athletics report that had yet to be unveiled to the public. “As it stands right now by virtually every measure, Rutgers athletics is on the upswing.”
A deeper look at the figures presented by Hermann indicates that while contributions and football season-ticket sales are on the rise, the athletics program won’t meet the initial forecast documented in the 10-year Rutgers Intercollegiate Athletics Fiscal Years plan presented by athletics officials earlier this year.
The February report initially projected athletic department subsidies from the university’s general allocations fund to total $16.4 million in 2014. According to the report presented by Hermann last week, the university’s general fund is projected to subsidize the athletics program with $19 million in 2014.
That would be an increase from the $18.4 million in subsidies in 2012. In 2013, costs associated with the Mike Rice bullying scandal caused the subsidy to spike to $37.1 million, the highest total ever recorded by a NCAA Division I program.
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