Preston Pennypacker on Coca Cola University

We’ve heard from our old friend Preston Pennypacker, Rutgers ‘32, who reports that he is “in as good health as can be expected, given the horrible news that keeps coming  in about the collapse of our beloved Rutgers.”

Mr. Pennypacker is deeply upset, it turns out, by the current talk about selling “naming rights” to the Rutgers football stadium. “It strikes me,” he writes, “as obscene. This business of making an old university over into a cheap shill for some brand name. It’s intolerable. My generation of undergraduates would have been over there throwing our bodies in front of Mulcahy’s bulldozers. What’s wrong with kids today? How can they let Rutgers—our Rutgers—be turned into a marketing vehicle?”

 Mr. Pennypacker reminded us that the story of Rutgers’ downward spiral into what he calls the “cesspool of commercialization” is chronicled in William C. Dowling’s Confessions of a Spoilsport. “The pertinent chapter,” he writes, “is chapter six, ‘The Coca Cola University.’ It tells how, just a few years ago, an admirable group of Rutgers undergraduates defeated the Lawrence administration’s marketing deal with the Coca Cola Corporation. Tee shirts. Demonstrations. Petitions. Personal confrontations with Francis Lawrence in Old Queens. Aren’t there any students like that left at the university?”

 We hadn’t looked at Confessions of a Spoilsport since it came out a year or so ago. Our interest piqued by Mr. Pennypacker’s comments, we went and reread “The Coca Cola University” chapter. As he says, it gives the full story of the successful student campaign against the Coca Cola contract. For those of you thinking of voting in the “Rutgers damage poll,” it usefully pinpoints Robert E. Mulcahy as the source of commercial contagion at Rutgers. It also mentions, interestingly enough, the episode of “naming rights” at another state university. By way of historical perspective, we reprint those paragraphs here:

  “In Universities in the Marketplace, former Harvard president Derek Bok describes how corporate marketing has undermined the university as an institution whose essential forms and values go back to the early Middle Ages.

 Yet Harvard and private schools like it, blessed with substantial endowments and a long tradition of academic distinction, are not the best places to look for signs of commercial penetration. For various reasons, public institutions have proved to be most vulnerable to the contagion of corporate marketing. Consider, for instance, the case of Boise State University in Idaho.

 Boise State’s basketball games were once played in an arena called the Pavillion. Then the university was approached by representatives of Taco Bell, the national fast food chain. All Boise State had to do was agree to rename the Pavilion the “Taco Bell Arena,” and the company would make a sizeable contribution to university coffers. It was a win-win proposition. Tac Bell would write off the cost as an advertising expense, and Boise State would have money it would never otherwise see.

 Faced with so blatant a move to commercialize their university, professors at Boise State mounted a short-lived protest. After some debate, the faculty senate was persuaded to pass a resolution opposing the Taco Bell deal. Boise State’s president struck back immediately. The faculty, he declared, were harming their own university. If Boise State wasn’t permitted to sell the name of the Pavilion to Taco Bell, other corporate donors might be discouraged from making similar offers.

 An anthropology professor named Robert McCarl answered the president in the student newspaper. “If students, faculty, and community members cannot protest a significant decision like this without ‘harming the university’ then Boise State is well on its way to becoming a corporate-controlled university.

 The very purpose of a university, Professor McCarl declared, “is to open up debate and create discourse about the issues of the day,” placing them in a “wider intellectual and cultural context.” Then, having flickered for a moment, the faculty protest at Boise State died out.”

 

    — Confessions of a Spoilsport, Ch. 6, “The Coca-Cola University”

Judgment Day: Fire Mulcahy

Ho-hum, the latest Sagarin ratings place Rutgers football at 97, ahead of Marshall but inferior to Arkansas State, Richmond, Buffalo, Weber State, and a bunch more schools we did not know played football (some we did not even know existed).  Do you believe these schools pay their coach $2 million per year?

That is entirely on athletic director Bobby Mulcahy, the village idiot of Piscataway, the same Mulcahy who has championed the even more idiotic idea of putting Rutgers on the hook to add $100 million of seating to a stadium that will stand empty next season as fans flee a football program that has imploded.  Says ESPN’s Brian Bennett: Rutgers is just bad enough to be awful.

Even homer reporters have turned on Greedy Greg Schiano, as the recognition spreads that Rutgers — despite a bigtime football budget — is doomed to fail because Schiano is a bad coach.  Read Tom Luicci in the Ledger:

* ”Greg Schiano [is] stubborn. He always talks about playing the people who give the team the best chance to win. But he plays favorites. And his handling of personnel is bizarre at times. Players have prominent roles one game, then disappear for a month after that….” 

Asked why is Rutgers losing, Luicci writes:

“Too much coaching turnover for one. Rutgers has lost a lot of top-notch assistants since 2006. Mediocre recruiting is another reason. There are so many “recruiting misses” this Rutgers roster it makes you wonder what the coaching staff was thinking when they got some of these players.”

That latter point is crucial.  Even when questions had been raised about Greedy Greg’s game-day coaching, most folks believed he is a master recruiter — and a Gannett analysis reinforces the contrarian view that that is baloney.  Question: why would a top high schooler come to Rutgers to play?  Schiano, obviously, is a self-centered ego-maniac who drives assistants away, he has no coaching ability, and he cannot makes mid-game adjustments.  So why is he New Jersey’s highest paid public employee by a wide margin?

Ask Big Bobby Mulcahy.

In the Gannett central Jersey papers, Paul Franklin, another homer, writes this: “Although the season is only half over, in truth it is quite over.

There will be no winning season. There will be no bowl game.

There is only an early obituary, a season that will be buried with three victories, maybe four at best.

This is a season that was born on promise but will die in underachievement.”

Wretchedly untalented as Greedy Greg Schiano is, the blame for the many millions of dollars of waste that is Rutgers football sits in Mulcahy’s lap.

Star Ledger readers know the blame is on Mulcahy.  Here is a sampling of their comments:

Posted by njdude101 on 10/11/08 at 9:34PM

Fire Bob “lost Rutgers millions” Mulcahy. Now. Please.

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Posted by njdude101 on 10/11/08 at 9:43PM

“Newspapers reported that drastically falling revenues and chronic overspending [at the meadowlands] led to Mulcahy’s dismissal by Republican Governor Christine Whitman, who, in a deal with Democratic legislative leaders, was persuaded to appoint Mulcahy Athletics Director of Rutgers University. Though the appointment was reportedly made in defiance of the wishes of Francis L. Lawrence…”

Now this guy has given the RU screw to Rutgers students, alumni and taxpayers. Way to go buddy. I’m sure Schiano is upset – he’s probably using C-notes to dry his tears.

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Posted by shoredogb on 10/11/08 at 9:50PM

Instead of firing Mulcahy, give him a raise, extend his contract so in turn he can add more seats to the stadium, give Schiano additional money under the table, extend his contract which will motivate him to win an extra game or two. This in turn will cause Rutgers to become more of a laughing stock in New Jersey and college athletics than it already is.

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Posted by rutgersred on 10/12/08 at 1:59AM

Greg Schiano: He looks like a coach. He talks like a coach. He acts like a coach. BUT he is not a coach.

$2 miilion dollars for this??????

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Posted by njisdonewith on 10/12/08 at 12:37PM

Just got a call the other night from Rutgers asking for a donation…after I stopped laughing, I told them call Schiano and ask him. If they can afford to pay a coach 2 million, let alone all the questionable perks, then they don’t need my money.

I do send money to my other alma mater…they value education above sports.

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Headline: tomorrow, Oct. 13th, the Rutgers Board of Governors meets.  Await an announcement that Phase 2 of the stadium expansion is “delayed.”  That’s the word on the street in Trenton and in the blogosphere.

Racism at Rutgers?

Rutgers’ two biggest stars were suspended for the Morgan State exhibition — a sign that insiders say indicates a program hopelessly out of control.  There has been no official word on why the players were suspended, but there is plenty of speculation here.  

Some suggest racism — at the very least, a toxic double standard — played a role since Greedy Greg Schiano did not suspend white qb Mike Teel for slugging a teammate, but did suspend two rising African-American stars for an unspecified violation of team policies.  Lacking insight into what the players did to get suspended, we have no comment — but we will say it is intriguing that rumors of racism in the leadership of the football program are now rampant.  

Incidentally, per usual with the moral relativist Schiano, the young stars — who weren’t needed in a scrimmage against weak-sister Morgan State — will be reinstated for next week’s crucial Big East game against West Virginia.  Reminiscent, isn’t it, of Schiano’s sophistry re the Justin Francis fiasco. Count on Greedy Greg to take the moral high road, at least when nothing is on the line.

Game attendance for the Morgan State exhibition hit new lows, per the Star Ledger, a sentiment echoed by posters to the booster message board.  It’s obvious that a sagging Rutgers team won’t draw crowds sufficient to pay for a stadium expansion, meaning that if it occurred, NJ taxpayers would be stuck with the bill.  Basic maths skills indicate why this $100 million waste will never happen.

We like the lead to today’s NY Times game reporting:  ”Bad weather joined forces with a bad team to keep many fans away from Rutgers Stadium on Saturday. “

Rutgers: The Mediocrities Multiply

Way to go, Mulcahy III and Greedy Greg Schiano — Big East beat writers peg the Scarlet Knights to finish 4th in the conference. Of course it is only an 8 team conference. Is this what pouring millions and millions of dollars into “bigtime” football buys you? What a disgrace. These clowns cannot even deliver on the football promise. So Rutgers now has mediocre — and deteriorating — academics and expensive but mediocre football. No wonder the state is investigating Schianogate and the rest of the inexplicable actions by Rutgers leadership.

Meantime, Slick McCormick — seeing his job blowing up in front of his eyes – announced the emergency appointment of a “special committee” to investigate the financial practices of the athletic department and its leader, Trenton hack Mulcahy III. Legendary jocksniffer Al Gamper, former chairman and current member of the Rutgers governing board, is on the panel but the bulk of the membership of the committee is TBA, mainly because who would want to step into this particular pile? Mulcahy III, are you hearing footsteps yet? Somewhere there’s a big clock ticking away the minutes you have left in your job.

Keep in mind that Mulcahy III has insisted on throwing millions at Greedy Greg Schiano, a coach with a lifetime losing record and with so few quality wins you can count them on one hand and still have fingers left free to pop open another beer.

Schiano’s skill may be simple sophistry, at the very least he has a peculiar take on accountability and ethics. In a q & a posted on MyCentralJersey.com, Schiano was asked about defensive tackle Justin Francis, who was arrested last spring for robbery. At the time of arrest, with great fanfare, Schiano said Francis was suspended from the team. But hold on. Now Schiano says: “What I did when this all went down is I decided that Justin, regardless of what happens will be suspended for the season from competition. From that point on, I needed to wait until the legal system plays out. And I did, but from early on Justin and I talked and he was very forthright with me and I just made a decision that this is what needed to be done.

“So in the interim, at some point in his career he was going to need to have his shoulder fixed. So before we knew what we going to happened, he got his shoulder fixed. So he’ll be with us, but he won’t be eligible to compete by my edict.”

So…the kid is taking a medical redshirt year off…which he needs to repair his shoulder…and, somehow, Schiano thinks this can be spun as discipline? Hey, Greg, if the coaching thing doesn’t work out for you, don’t expect a job in the philosophy department, hear.

But Mulcahy III can top Schiano’s rhetorical flourish, sort of. The best line from today is in the Ledger piece: “Mulcahy could not immediately be reached for comment.” Do you think he’s out scouting retirement property in Florida? That we don’t know, but we do know McCormick soon will be handing him the gold watch…probably at midnight in a Piscataway mini-mall parking lot.

Oh…and here’s a little music — and a little more — for Gamper and his jocksniffing cronies to enjoy as they go about their work on McCormick’s small joke of a committee.

Mulcahy Mans the Barricades

The following recent events at Rutgers seem to cry out for an editorial cartoon…

 - Two football players Justin Francis (handgun) and Patrick Nemorin (.177 caliber BB gun) are arrested for weapons possession and other offenses on campus.

 - AD Bob Mulcahy is quoted, “I look at athletics as the front porch of the university, as an opportunity for people to open the doors and see what’s inside.”

 - “Olympic sports,” crew, fencing, tennis and swimming are dropped supposedly due to an inability for them to be funded by the Athletic Department.

 - Millions and millions of dollars are planned to be spent for an expansion of the football stadium.

Can’t you just see the cartoon now…In the background an enormous football stadium, perfect in every way, labeled Rutgers University.  Connected to it a rickety porch like something from a Lil Abner comic strip.  On the porch sits AD Mul III wearing a straw hat and puffing on a corn cob pipe.  On either side of him stand football players holding various weapons and wearing cartridge belts with holsters.  Mull III is speaking, “Now keep a sharp lookout.  There are rowers, fencers, tennis players and swimmers out there trying to get in.  They are carrying oars, epees and rackets which could be dangerous on our campus.”

Somewhere on one of the fine NJ papers there is a cartoonist who can take this idea an run with it…with or without attribution…just be sure to send a copy to me.

Submitted by Dan “Torp” Toleno ‘55   

Bigtime Football and Criminality: Perfect Together

Hello Justin Francis, you’ve made the International Herald Tribune.  When Rutgers football tantalizes the world’s readers, shouldn’t this be a cause for celebration?  Not in the case of young Mr. Francis, a Rutgers recruit from Florida, who found himself charged with robbery, burglary, making terrorist threats and possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes after an incident involving the defensive tackle and several Rutgers students.  Alas, the Francis caper figured not only in the IHT’s news budget but in that of just about every newspaper in New Jersey, from the Home News to the Star Ledger.

Note to Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy: we will be tracking player arrests on an ongoing basis.   We are sure your youngsters will keep us busy.