Last week, the Rutgers athletic department sent out this public message to its boosters - thanking them for a record breaking fundraising year, and kicking off the campaign to do even better in 2010. Shaun O'Hara was in attendance at the RAC on Saturday, giant oversized novelty check in hand, to endow a scholarship for former walk-on football players.
Check out the latest updates from Kevin Haslam and Jack Corcoran as they train for the draft. Haslam, Davis, McCourty, and Munoz will be signing autographs at Scarlet Fever next month.
There's not any shame in the women's basketball team losing by four to #9 West Virginia on the road, but how do you lose to Syracuse at the RAC, much less by double digits?
Wrestling's winning streak came to a halt with a lopsided loss at #7 Lehigh. That's unfortunate an unfortunate cap off to what has been an excellent season. Expectations will certainly be higher in the future. Next up is a return trip to Lehigh in several weeks for the EIWA championships, followed by the NCAAs.
With wrestling winding down, is RU baseball going to make any noise this year? They weren't picked very high in the preseason Big East poll, although most of the team is returning.
How about those new recent comments by Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez about Big Ten expansion?
Big Ten officials have hired a firm to research potential candidates as the conference considers expansion and that 15 programs were included in an initial report."They basically broke down what they would bring to the table," Alvarez said at a meeting of the UW athletic board. "They talked about academics. They talked about size. They talked about size of their arenas. They talked about attendance. They talked about the populace in that specific area."
According to Alvarez that process will continue, and Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany could make a recommendation to the university presidents this summer.
"I think it could be one (school), or I think it could be multiple," Alvarez said.
Those comments are curious in light of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's recent remarks, where he identified Missouri and Rutgers as candidates. Makes sense, since no other plausible candidates would add much in terms of revenue.
I forgot who linked Friday's NJN report about the plans to upgrade the RAC. It's about halfway in. The Rutgers AAUP head continues to protest, despite the proposed project's funding coming from bonds and private donations. That level of dishonesty only hurts their credibility. The amount of willful public ignorance on this and the stadium expansion is staggering. That doesn't mean there aren't very real concerns about the viability of renovations, but those are once again being drowned out.
Several Rutgers players helped out with a public event in Ridgewood.
Free agent Gary Brackett still wants to return to the Colts. Ray Rice isn't resting on his laurels after a brilliant 2009.
Who would have imagined that Turkey is a hotbed for Rutgers basketball? In fact, Quincy Douby is the leading scorer in the Turkey Basketball League.
Former Rutgers assistant Chris Demarest is out at Hudson Catholic after one season.
Per Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman from the Star-Ledger, the Nets are finally moving to Newark next year. Keeping them in Izod was just a terrible idea from the start...as is putting an arena in Brooklyn. As per the article, Gov. Christie's administration did secure several additional concessions from Forest City Ratner. The whole reason the Nets stayed in Izod instead of the Rock in the first place was to avoid any suggestion that their stay in Newark could become permanent. However, the Brooklyn arena is still just a pipe dream at this point, and the Nets have the option to stay longer.
The long-standing plans to "green" over College Avenue in New Brunswick appear to be dead. Curiously enough though, I don't get much in the way of inside informaton here, but one reader did email me out of the blue with pretty much the exact details of the project being canceled several months back. That was a surprise since I already assumed that the project wasn't going to happen. The entire NB campus still needs comprehensive facilities maintenance and upgrades. Also of note were that Rutgers may finally be moving forward with the critical Livingston development.