PISCATAWAY — Jeff Towers, the booster who is on the verge of being hired by Rutgers coach Kyle Flood to a prominent role on his staff, pledged a $1 million gift to support the Scarlet Knights football program last year, two people with knowledge of the contribution told NJ Advance Media.

The two people with knowledge of the financial commitment and a third person intimately familiar with the deal have identified Towers and his wife, Amy, as the anonymous donors who guaranteed the additional compensation in Flood's contract extension last September.

The people, who are not authorized to comment on the matter, spoke on the condition of anonymity a day after NJ Advance Media reported that Towers was on the verge of being hired as Rutgers football recruiting coordinator. In the report, Flood said "nobody has been hired as of yet,'' but confirmed that Towers had interviewed for a position in the recruiting department.

If Towers is added to the staff as recruiting coordinator or to another position, it would create an awkward situation: The booster identified as the source of part of Flood's salary would work under the Scarlet Knights' fourth-year head coach.

Flood declined to be interviewed by NJ Advance Media on Friday when asked directly whether Towers is the anonymous booster who pledged financial support for his extension. Towers didn't respond to two messages from NJ Advance Media.

Multiple other Rutgers officials, including Board of Governors chair Greg Brown and university President Robert Barchi and Athletic Director Julie Hermann, declined interview requests to talk about Towers' financial commitments to the football program.

A Rutgers official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NJ Advance Media that top school administrators planned to discuss whether the Towers hiring is going to continue to go forward.

The official declined to confirm that Towers is the anonymous donor, but said: "I can't tell you how much he's donated, but it's a significant amount.''

Flood agreed to a two-year extension on Sept. 11, a deal that increased his salary from $1.05 million to $1.25 million for 2015 and resulted in a guaranteed increase of $3.4 million for the lifetime of the contract.

The deal stipulates that if Flood is fired at any point before the contract expires Feb. 28, 2019, he will receive a $1.4 million severance from the university. Before the addendum was executed, his contract called for a $500,000 buyout if he had been fired before the end of the upcoming season.

In ratifying the extension, the university Board of Governors on Oct. 9 passed a resolution that read: "Generous donors, who wish to remain anonymous, have stepped forward and agreed to supplement Coach Flood's guaranteed annual compensation by an additional $200,000 each year.''

A person familiar with how Towers' pledge was constructed before it went up to top Rutgers officials for approval told NJ Advance Media the $1 million pledge was set to be paid in five annual increments of $200,000.

The Rutgers University Foundation, the school's fundraising arm that accepts financial gifts made to the athletics department, didn't immediately respond to a request to review the Annual Giving Gift document that sources said was signed by Towers.

The contract extension guarantees Flood's compensation will reach $1.35 million in 2016, $1.45 million in 2017, and $1.55 million in 2018. In an open letter to the Rutgers fan base in October, Hermann took credit for enhancing Flood's contract "through private fundraising'' and Barchi, in an interview with NJ Advance Media after the Oct. 9 Board of Governors meeting, said the "importance of it being privately funded is very clear.''

In listing the recruiting-department position on its university human resources job board, the application stated that it was a non-state-funded post. Two school officials told NJ Advance Media it's possible that Towers — who, according to real estate records, resides on a 34-acre property in Mahwah that was purchased for $19 million in 2009, — won't take a salary for his position.

According to NCAA bylaw 13.02.14, a booster is defined as a "representative of the institution's athletics interests'' who ... has "made financial contributions to the athletics department.''



The college athletics governing body, in a guide explaining the rules restricting a booster's involvement toward recruiting, writes "an individual is considered to be a representative of an institution's athletics interests (booster) by supporting teams and athletic departments through donations of time and financial resources.'' The guide also makes this point: "NCAA rules state that once an individual is identified as an athletics representative (booster), the person retains that identity for life.''

That would create another awkward situation: Flood would be placing a booster — operatives that the NCAA rules are designed to keep away from recruits — in the recruiting office, dealing closely with recruits and their families.

A person familiar with Flood's decision told NJ Advance Media on Thursday that Flood plans to proceed with the appointments of Towers, former Illinois player-personnel director Marcus Berry and E.J. Barthel to his recruiting department.

But a Rutgers official told NJ Advance Media the school's athletics compliance office was investigating whether the appointment should move forward.

The NCAA on Friday didn't respond to an NJ Advance Media question of whether Rutgers would be breaking any rules if Flood were to hire a known booster to its recruiting staff.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Towers is an "executive with 30 years of experience leading robust marketing, communications and fundraising programs in some of the largest nonprofit organizations in America.''

Towers, who has no known football-program experience, is the proprietor of Jeffrey Towers & Associates, a New York-based nonprofit firm that "exists to advance causes that matter'' and "to strengthen your brand, increase its visibility, improve its case for support and tap into its fundraising potential,'' according to his LinkedIn profile.

In his former position as chief development officer of the American Red Cross, Towers was credited as a key fundraiser in a $575.4 million campaign for victims of the Haiti earthquake in the first three weeks after the disaster, according to a 2010 Business Wire report.

His wife, Amy, was previously married to hedge-fund mogul Larry Robbins, whose net worth is $2.2 billion, according to Forbes.com. Amy Towers reportedly helped Robbins form Glenview Capital Management, a $9 billion firm that raises capital for investors through private investment funds.

Amy Towers was a banker before becoming a partner in her former husband's fund. She has been widely praised for her charity work with UNICEF, the United Nations program that provides humanitarian aid and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

Jeff Towers served as senior vice president for marketing for UNICEF USA, according to a 2005 Africa News report.

According to a public records search, the Mahwah property is in Amy Towers' name and was purchased in December 2009. Towers' wife also owns at least two properties in Wisconsin and a condo in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, according to real estate records.

One person with knowledge of the $1 million pledge said Towers' relationship with the Rutgers athletics program began late in 2013, but it wasn't until the following year that he agreed to support the football program.

It's not known what motivated Towers to donate so significantly to Rutgers, since there are no records that tie him or his wife to the university. Multiple reports list Amy Towers as a University of Wisconsin graduate while Jeff Towers is said to be a University of Nebraska product.

Their Twitter profiles indicate that they're big football fans, with the couple recently highlighting their trip to watch the Green Bay Packers' Jan. 11 NFC playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. Towers is pictured wearing a button with an obscene phrase.

The couple tweeted photos from their trip to watch Rutgers play in the Quick Lane Bowl in late December, posing with the championship trophy.

Jeff Towers' followers on Twitter include Flood and his entire coaching staff, as well as numerous others tied to the Rutgers football program. On Thursday, Towers followed the account belonging to Nick Krimin, the St. Joseph-Metuchen High School offensive lineman who, according to an NJ Advance Media report, committed for the 2016 recruiting class.

Towers' first documented tweet appears to be a picture of a Rutgers-logo travel cup set atop the deck of a boat on July 1, 2014. That was the day Rutgers officially joined the Big Ten, and Towers apparently wrote: "Excited!!!''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.