Ryan Dunleavy

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Rutgers University athletic programs will officially enter the Big Ten on July 1

President Robert L. Barchi estimated the school will receive $9-$9.5M at the end of its first year.

Most of Rutgers' Olympic coaches said their facilities need improvements to rival their counterparts

Rutgers' 24 teams failed to win a regular-season or conference tournament title in 2013-14

PISCATAWAY — Rutgers is about to get a second chance to make a first impression.

In the 20 months since the school's academic and athletics profile jointly rose with acceptance into the Big Ten, Rutgers spent most of its time in the public eye battling controversy and most of its closed-door time strategizing to improve revenue, facilities, on-field performance as well as fan and student-athlete experiences.

RELATED: How will the Big Ten impact each Rutgers program?

Now, the countdown is set to expire July 1 and results are about to be judged against maybe the best in class.

"Football is getting ready and that's the main thing because we want to come out of the gates strong," athletics director Julie Hermann told the Asbury Park Press. "In terms of all the details it takes, every day counts to make sure we've checked every box in adjusting to Big Ten policy and getting our infrastructure set."

Ready or not, here comes Rutgers.

Revenue

Just as adding Rutgers meant big money for the Big Ten because its television network was picked up by New York cable providers at a subscription fee, Rutgers expects its own financial windfall.

Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi estimated to the Press that the school will receive $9-$9.5 million from the Big Ten at the end of its first year. The payout from Rutgers' now-former home (American Athletic Conference) is expected to be $1-2 million.

The league has told fully integrated schools to expect $44.5 million each — up from $27 million this year — in 2017-18 when a new television deal begins, according to Barchi. Rutgers is due its first fully vested check in June 2021.

"The years between now and then, it's all about having to do the same sweat equity that every Big Ten member has had to do," Hermann said. "Sweat equity is going to happen not only on the competition field but also in terms of us showing our worthiness out there. That's going to require our fans to get behind us, our donors to step in and solve as much of the gap as we can. They already are stepping up to support our football program, and that's the first step."

Hermann said fundraising "will finish the year up 25 percent from last year," when Rutgers reported $6.1 million in contributions to the NCAA. Rutgers has begun mandating "seat gifts" with the purchase of football tickets. For example, a $240 end zone season ticket this fall includes a $25 mandatory donation to the Rutgers Student Athlete Scholarship Fund.

Maryland ($10.7 million) also is seeing a comparable increase in support, athletic director Kevin Anderson told the Press, but Penn State set the East Coast bar with $24.4 million in contributions last year.

But is success tied to the size of the budget?

"I don't think it has that much to do with budget," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told the Press. "It's about your plan and having coaches who understand what type of players you can consistently recruit and building your program accordingly. We don't try to do things just because someone else is doing them. We try to do things that we believe in and have been sound and true to us."

Rutgers' athletics operated in 2013 on a record $47 million subsidy for expenses of $78,989,475, which was inflated by one-time costs during a year of extraordinary upheaval. Four of the 11 Big Ten public institutions needed no subsidy in 2013 and only two required more than $4 million, according to USA Today's database.

"There's a huge potential value to athletics if it's done correctly," Barchi said. "On the other hand, it can also be a big risk to an institution from a financial point of view. And the cost of doing big-time athletics, if it's not appropriately addressed and managed, can be a major drain on the resources that might be used to support academic programs. It's a path that one might want to go down, but a path you want to be careful in managing and plotting your future."

Facilities

Rutgers spent $102 million to renovate High Point Solutions Stadium before the 2009 season, and its football headquarters (Hale Center) and practice field are on par with the pack in the Big Ten.

"We made it clear that we were not in position to expand our stadium at the current time," Barchi said, "and that if entry into the Big Ten was predicated on a major investment on facilities now, then we would have to pass."

The 37-year-old Louis Brown Athletic Center leads any discussion of facilities upgrades at Rutgers.

In the last six years, more than half of the Big Ten schools have upgraded or announced plans to upgrade basketball facilities. Ohio State spent $19 million on expansion and renovation, Nebraska built a new arena for $179 million and spent an additional $19 million on a practice facility, and Minnesota intends to add a practice facility as part of a $190 million multi-facilities upgrade announced in 2013.

"They are one of the national leaders in facilities," Hermann said. "We look forward to stepping up to that challenge. I would say where every Scarlet Knight plays — the gym floor we play at the RAC, the soccer field, the field hockey field, the stadiums that we are in — are awesome. I think we have a lot of work to do around those fields — the training facilities — and we are about that business 24/7 right now."

Rutgers' initial plan for RAC upgrades, announced in May 2012, has been scrapped and replaced by Hermann's vision, which still needs to be approved by university constituents.

Most of Rutgers' Olympic coaches said their facilities, not all of which are currently equipped to host Big Ten Network broadcasts, need improvements to rival their counterparts — no surprise given all current Big Ten schools have an indoor golf hitting range at their disposal. Rutgers does not.

Michigan announced $250 million worth of facilities upgrades for non-revenue sports, including $90 million on track and field.

"I think they rate as you would expect for a program that has been struggling to cover its costs for years compared to a program like Ohio State or Michigan that's been bringing in a huge amount of revenue for those same number of years," Barchi said of Rutgers' facilities. "It will take time for us to get into a financial position where we can improve our physical plan to the point where we would like it. But we will eventually get there."

Performance

Rutgers' 24 teams competed in four different leagues in 2013-14, but the on-field results were unanimous as the school failed to win a regular-season or conference tournament title.

While fortunes of college programs can shift wildly year-to-year, the Big Ten represents a step up across the board — not just in football, where Rutgers slipped to 6-7 after sharing its first league title in 2012.

"The advice I got from my former athletic director … (was), 'If you want to be a good athletic director, be good in football," Alvarez said. "If you are good in football and you fill the stadium, then you are going to have the wherewithal to sink money into your other sports."

Louisville, which is headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference, won 11 total regular-season and postseason championships in The American. Rutgers, Memphis and Temple were the only schools shut out.

Women's soccer was the only Rutgers team to reach its conference tournament final and joined gymnastics as the only to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Wrestling, men's track and field and women's swimming produced an All-American and Rutgers had two AAC Coach of the Year winners.

"The nice thing is that if you are competing in a high level at the Big Ten then you are competing for a national title," Hermann said. "We've got a boatload of work to do to position 24 sports to compete in a league at this level. We're totally focused on our student experience and our academic work. We go in competing there. On the fields of play, we're going to be working hard for a long, long time."

Staff writer Keith Sargeant contributed to this story

NEW SERIES

Starting this week, we will count down until Rutgers' official entry into the Big Ten with a look at how the change in conference will affect each of the Scarlet Knights' athletic programs, both on and off the field.