Rutgers’ did it, dismantling Kansas State in the Texas Bowl by a lopsided 37-10 margin. This is good news for Rutgers fans and the school — even if the fuddy-duddies on WFAN couldn’t get themselves jazzed up for it. And, just as significantly, the team is likely to continue its growth and get better — at least that is what the sports writers are saying this morning.
The positive spin I am offering does not mean that my concerns about the money we are spending — and by we I mean New Jersey taxpayers who, afterall, contribute a bit of change to the school’s budget — on the coach and the program have evaporated into the ether. They remain concerns, but these are the rules under which live (i.e., that American universities place too much emphasis on how their football and basketball teams do, more emphasis, in fact than on the classroom), rules that do need to change, so we might as well have something to root for.
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A random thought from The Star-Ledger:
Spero Dedes, the announcer on the NFL Network, said Rutgers was from “South Jersey” three times. Then there was the New York/New Jersey crowd comment. And the reference to the “South Brunswick” campus. This is the cable network we’re supposed to demand? Sounds like the USFL Network to us. …
This was a surprise give that a) I live in South Brunswick, b) I have edited the South Brunswick Post for the past 11 years (and was a reporter in South Brunswick for three) and c) I graduated from Rutgers and spent a year in the Rutgers Graduate English Department.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 