if not the program... I hope that can rebound as well, I've grown fond of watching winning football for a change.

I don't know about better off. Louisville hasn't recovered from the loss of Petrino. Pitt hasn't been in top form since Harris left. UConn fell off after going to a BCS game with Edsall. WVU has been ok but not what it was under Rodriguez. Cincy was becoming a powerhouse before Kelly left. It's hard to recover from this kind of thing, and the timing is awful from RU's perspective.

Talking about the school, he makes so much money that the school will be better off with that money back, either for academics (don't know if that is transferable) or for the athletic departments as a whole. I completely agree that this has the potential to send the football program back into the dark ages in what seemed to be a very promising time.

Oh yes, academically, the weaker the football program the better off the school is. They just handed Urban Meyer I don't know how many millions when they keep telling us how broke Ohio State is when it comes to graduate programs.

College football is a fantastic game to watch, with much more variety and improvisation than the slow, brutal slog for field goal position that is the NFL. My autumn Saturdays are spoken for, whereas Sunday, honestly, if I catch the Packers, cool, if I don't, no biggie.

All of that said, however, college football as practiced at the D1 level is so thoroughly corrupting and contrary to the mission of a university, that were I given the powers pof Augustus to rule, I would have to banish it with tears in my eyes as was said about Augustus and Ovid.

I don't know about the correlation between weak football programs and strong academics. A great sports team brings national recognition, which increases application numbers, that in turn leads to a more academically competitive school.

As for OSU, Ohio State's graduate programs can legitimately be broke while A.D. gives the football coach several million dollars. It's two separate programs with individual budgets, no different than if the English Department were struggling to make ends meet while the Business & Accounting program is putting up new buildings all over campus.

The good thing about schiano is he was from the Paterno school and did everything right (at least in theory for Paterno). Very high graduation rates, very high academic performance for players, getting his players involved in the community etc. He was/is a class act. Too bad this is so messy.

The one good thing I see on the football side is that the football team had become Schianos personal fiefdom. He had so much relative success that people could hardly question him. It was his teams, his systems, and his bonehead strategies from time to time. People say he built Rutgers program but it was more his program than Rutgers in my opinion. Now I think with him gone, Rutgers has a chance to move to the next level if they survive long enough.

I have some strong opinions on this.

First an aside: I would like to say Cincy wasn't becoming a powerhouse before Kelly... before Kelly was Mark Dantonio (now head coach at MSU and doing well at it)... UC has become a stepping stone for bigger programs and we've gotten lucky with the last three coaches (I'm a UC alum and a big fan, so you know my bias).

Now on the side of Rutgers, Schiano did a shitty move. He stood up multiple 4-star recruits (like... assistants were sitting there with the recruit, waiting for Schiano to arrive) to finalize his new contract. Suffice to say, these recruits will probably not be signing with Rutgers, now. A phone call, while unpleasant, would have been more professional and let the program continue on after he has gone. For as professional as he is, I'm really surprised at how he handled this situation.

On the Tampa Bay side, what a bunch of fucking morons! Greg Schiano was an average Big East coach (sorry, Santa). He had two great years, and those were because of Ray Rice. Let me put it this way: Schiano's two good years were at the same time Penn State was doing poorly and people expected JoePa to retire, and many had Schiano as a possible successor. This was like 5 years ago. JoePa gets fired, and Schiano doesn't get a SNIFF from Penn State? Not good enough for the Big10, but good enough for the NFL??
Now, I actually think Schiano is a good coach for the school he's at and the recruits he can get. But what is an NFL team doing with their hands in a mid-level college program? Chip Kelly turns you down, so you just dig deeper into the college ranks? Hell, Marty Schottenheimer has a history of taking poor teams and making them perennial playoff teams... oh wait, you don't want a coach that'll make your team good, you want a coach that doesn't lose in the playoffs and will take not making it to the playoffs over one that loses in the playoffs.... you know when you fired the one coach you should have kept for his entire career in Tony Dungy. You looked smart when Chucky won the superbowl, but (should have) realized that when Tony's players had started leaving, he was just as bad as any other coach you had...
There are SEC teams with coaches willing to jump... there are veteran coaches without a job you could have gone to... hell, there are coordinators that look pretty hot right now they could have gone to (like Zimmer in Cincinnati, etc...)... but you picked a mediocre coach from a mediocre mid-level college program? That's a good way to get tampa excited and fill all those seats....

@BosephJennett: "I don't know about the correlation between weak football programs and strong academics. A great sports team brings national recognition, which increases application numbers, that in turn leads to a more academically competitive school.

As for OSU, Ohio State's graduate programs can legitimately be broke while A.D. gives the football coach several million dollars. It's two separate programs with individual budgets."

I agree. In fact, a good athletic team (basketball or football), the tickets buy the coaches contract and the excess can actually HELP the academics in the school. So if Schiano was making $1mil, it was because they were bringing in over $2mil in ticket sales. If you go back to the dark ages, you may end up with ticket sales that barely cover the athletics budget... So having an unsuccessful team may actually harm the academics, as academic moneys may have to move over to help the athletics continue.

Yeah except virtually no athletic departments get all the money they need themselves, but must take money from the state or from student fees or some other source. Granted, OSU is an exception, but that's because they can afford to gouge students and the public for tickets and concessions and still fill the 102,000 seat stadium.

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2011/10/most_ohio_schools_depend_on_st.html

Fort check your facts, Schiano didn;t get a sniff from Penn State because before the search he said he wouldn't entertain the job at Penn State. About him not being good enough for Big Ten he got offered the job, or at least a chance at the Job at Michigan and turned them down.

From Tampa I think its obvious they wanted a defensive coach to go with their team culture and schiano is one of the best defensive minds in the country. He also has always run a Pro-Style offense and has been amoung the best in the country at producing NFL caliber talent (scoff all you want, 5 players in the Superbowl are from rutgers only 4 other schools can say that) Belicheck also swears by Schiano.

Will he succede in the NFL? I don't think so. I don't think he has the offensive chops, but we'll see.

that wasn't meant to sound as angry as it came out

http://businessofcollegesports.com/2011/06/28/using-student-fees-to-support-athletic-department-budget/

The point few programs have "excess" revenue and those that do tend to spend it lavishly on their coaches and staff rather than helping out the academics.

And the idea that schools become more 'competitive' by being good at sports is not true (see: Boise State). Increase aps just make the price of tuition go up, academically nothing happens.

I'm with Putin on this one. I don't know of a single one of my friends who was serious about their major that based their college decision, even in part, on sports. This is more telling because most of my friends from HS were huge sports fans and played a lot in HS.

Santa, just to be clear, I think Schiano is a good coach, but Tampa should have waited for him to coach in a bigger program before bringing him to the pros. If he's smart, he'll bring a strong offensive coordinator and let him do the offensive part of the game (especially his lack of making good adjustments in-game). He can succeed, but it is just a really high risk for Tampa Bay is what I'm getting at.
In almost any business, the big players take the least amount of risk... it's the small and trying to become a big player where you take the highest risk... in the NFL, all the teams should act like big players, but some still have that 'we need a big risk for the big reward' mentality, which is why they stay poor and keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

I would agree mostly, I think what you are missing is that TB ownership was purposefully looking for a young coach which came out when Schiano was first announced, so they would like youth over experience. It might be faulty logic but it is logic.

@ abgemacht: I think that's a testament to your friends. None of my friends based their decision on athletics, but my friends also are people that were serious about their majors. Not everyone fits that label, especially when they're 18 and deciding where to go.
I've worked at three universities, of varying prominence, in two different states. The topic of why students attend these schools almost always comes up (I usually make a point of it), and a surprising number have athletics playing a role in their decisions. I'm not saying that the students chose the school because of athletics, but a large number first considered the school because of the sports teams. Few people want to spend four years cheering for losers (I can say that because my undergrad school was horrendous at sports).

I've also taught high school juniors and seniors at private and public schools in three states, and I can verify that a lot of 18 year old do not consider everything they should when it comes to collegiate scholarship.

I'll admit that I have a notorious disinterest in sports, but my experience has been that college student will get drunk for sporting events no matter how bad the team.

I agree the sports is part of the whole "college experience" that may people consider when choosing a school, but I haven't found most college students to actually increase the quality of academics.

Wow. That's a hell of thing. I wonder if the program there can make it without him. Maybe this'll be like that season of Friday Night Lights where Coach Taylor works at that college but then goes back to Dylan.

As for the good-football-team-bad-school idea, there's merit to it. I go to the University of Illinois, and we're just about average at both. Unless you're an engineer, librarian, or basketball player in the early 2000s ,or course.

Just to drudge this up to add relevent information that I did not foresee. Rutgers did not only keep almost all of the recruits they had, but they also landed the second 5 star player in school history. The teams recruiting class is ranked 22nd in the country. Have to hand it to those 17 year olds they are loyal.

Reuters has had a few lucky seasons, that does not make them a good football school.

yes lucky seasons. Which is why they have so many All-Pro players coming from those teams. Luck.

not that what you said had anything to do with the 2012 recruiting class in the first place

How many bowl games in the last 100 years has Reuters won. No that one from like 1301 bc doesn't count.

again irrelevant to this class. No one says they are LSU but they are not the team they were a decade ago. What is it 6 in the last 7 years now having won 5 of those? Stop being a hater.

I hate LSU too.

So you hate Rutgers and LSU. What are you a Florida fan spurned a Rutgers recruit?

Colder a lot colder.

I'll give you a hint. I live in Indiana, but also hate IU.
I don't like LSU because they are an SEC school (if you want to call sec sports intercollegiate, I prefer pre professional, or minor league) and all Rutgers fans are just plain obnoxious.

After hearing what a lot of east PA's have said (that Rutgers was one of the worst Div-1 schools until Schiano go there), I'm starting to warm to Schiano.

He was definitely a good recruiter, which is something he really won't use in the pros. Here's hoping Tampa goes against tradition and gives him some players to use.

LOL @ Purdue fans.

You jump to conclusions Putin. There is Notre Dame, Butler, ISU, and many other colleges in Indiana.

Notre Dame fans don't care about IU enough to hate them, and the others are too irrelevant for you to be talking so much trash.

So which lame Indiana school do you support, the suspense is killing me.

@Putin -- I often laugh at Purdue fans ... my mom went there and I use her for tickets every tome the Buckeyes are in West Lafeyette ... of course they have been a thorn in our side a few times lately, but hey ... I will at least say Tressel always showed up for his meetings and conferences, even if he answered the questions with classic double-speak

What reason do you have to support the Buckeyes? Just hate your own community?

Incidentally I go/went to OSU and live in Columbus.

And trust me, in Indiana if you like college hoops but not IU, then you hate IU, no matter what school you support. And who says earlham is irrelevant?

c'bus that's why

Or Franklin. GRIZ TEAM CAMP!

Well considering hes in Indiana and claims "Rutgers Fans are Obnoxious." I'm assuming he is a Ball State Fan who had a bad experience at the International Bowl. If not he is just a Purdue fan with a vivid imagination. If you want to talk about obnoxious fan bases why would you single out Rutgers, we aren't even the most obnoxious in the Big East.

I went to that International Bowl. It was my first time seeing a US college football game, it was fun. I have been a Ray Rice fan since then.