Greg Schiano

Sometimes you have to wonder if Bob Mulcahy realizes someone else is the Governor.  Just as Jon Corzine’s state comptroller, Matthew Boxer, launches a probe of Rutgers University’s sports spending – spurred by published reports of a seemingly secret deal to get football coach Greg Schiano an extra $250,000 -- the Rutgers Athletic Director decided to form his own investigation team.  Mulcahy has tapped two old men who seem to show up every time someone needs a blue ribbon panel: former PSE&G CEO Al Koeppe and Albert Gamper, the former CIT Chairman.  Apparently the state comptroller and the State Commission of Investigation aren’t enough for Mulcahy and Rutgers President Richard McCormick.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak doesn’t have as much trouble with a deal to keep Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano as he does with the “secrecy and lack of transparency” that surrounds the deal.  “Rutgers University, as the state's flagship higher education university, has an obligation to be accessible and accountable not only to the students attending the school but to the taxpaying public that subsidizes most of its operations,” Lesniak wrote in an op-ed that appeared in The Star-Ledger.  “In the case of Schiano's contract, not only should the terms have been disclosed, but they should have been touted by an administration seeking to find cost-effective ways to increase the national profile of Rutgers football. “  Click here to read Lesniak’s Op-Ed.

On the day Gov. Jon Corzine announced he would lead a campaign to raise $30 million in private donations for renovations at Rutgers University Stadium, football coach Greg Schiano was meeting with the University of Michigan athletic director to discuss the coaching vacancy, according to a Star-Ledger report.  Update: Schiano said today that he will stay at Rutgers.