Rutgers’ new leadership making immediate push in NIL space

Rutgers is ushering in a new era under the leadership of President William Tate and athletic director Keli Zinn. Both have made the transition to Rutgers from LSU and are looking to bring immediate change.

This week, Tate and Zinn sat down with Chris Carlin on the Scarlet Table Podcast to talk about introducing Rutgers Athletics to a whole new era. 

Tate came in as the University President early this summer and followed up by bringing Zinn to lead the athletic department. 

“You have to manage coaches in the job she was in and Keli is a really tough manager, in a good way,” Tate said. “We had elite coaches with outstanding talent. I thought she handled really the egos and eccentric behaviors in really special ways. So, when the opportunity came where there was a search going on, in my mind, I always thought the win was going to be if I could get Keli to come here.”

Zinn, having a history working with Tate, offered up some high praise.

“What I saw in him was obviously a president who had a mentality that I found extremely motivating and empowering,” she said of Tate. “But just for myself and the staff of coaches around us, but also the young people and athletes who lived in that sports arena. He was heavily involved in our recruiting efforts, in our retention efforts at LSU more so than I have seen from any presidents in the past.”

Rutgers athletics has endured some issues in the past and, now, the primary concern is NIL and playing catch-up. 

“It’s the No.1 priority and has been since day one,” Zinn said of NIL. “I knew coming in we had some work to do in that space and very quickly was able to see how much work needed to be done. And so we’ve made a lot of progress in the past eight weeks, from bringing online and in-house and agency that is going to work with corporate sponsorships and brands to work with student athletes.”

For Rutgers football and basketball, the rosters are set for this season. But there will soon be work to do with another transfer portal season on the horizon. The frenzy for football will begin in January, while basketball will follow a few months later. 

“I feel really good about where we are and I think over the course of the next six to eight months, you are going to see a significant impact in that space,” Zinn said of NIL.