Maryland and Rutgers arrived in the Big Ten on the same day, and in the ensuing 12 years their financial issues and lack of football success have tied their stories together even more tightly.
Since joining the Big Ten on July 1, 2014, their football teams have the two worst records in league play: 29-73 for Maryland, 22-84 for Rutgers. They reported the two lowest football ticket sales totals among the Big Ten’s 16 public schools. And those numbers are only part of their overall revenue generation challenge.
During fiscal year 2025, Maryland reported $124 million in revenue, which is $22.64 million below the second-lowest Big Ten public school, Rutgers ($146.64 million). Over its first 11 seasons in the Big Ten, Rutgers’ athletic department reported $518.9 million in losses ($190.52 million) or direct government subsidies and student fees ($328.37 million). Rutgers has tried to catch up to its Big Ten colleagues, but its losses are expected to climb even higher this year.
Both schools introduced new athletic directors last July who see opportunities for growth, Rutgers hiring LSU administrator Keli Zinn and Maryland bringing in Atlanta Braves executive Jim Smith. They have vastly different backgrounds but are committed to changing the financial outlook for the schools at the bottom of the richest conference in college sports.
“Admittedly we already have, and it’s part of the reason you’ll hear me be pretty bullish in this space,” Zinn said.
Rutgers digging out of a historic hole
With more than 50,000 undergraduates and proximity to the nation’s largest media market, Rutgers has some built-in advantages. But taking the leap from the American Athletic Conference to the Big Ten has come with significant spending increases that create an uphill battle for Zinn.
Rutgers’ financial distress doesn’t reflect apathy, however. Last year, the school reported 93 percent capacity at SHI Stadium for home football games despite a 5-7 record and stagnant growth in ticket sales. Its men’s basketball ticket revenue ranked seventh among Big Ten public schools during the 2025 fiscal year.
“I’ve found a sincere passion for the state of New Jersey, and a number of people in positions that can help change the trajectory of our department in a way where they recognize the value of what it means to a state when you have a really well-performing athletics program,” Zinn said.
Zinn spent four years as LSU’s executive deputy athletic director and chief operating officer with direct oversight of football and gymnastics, revenue generation, capital projects and strategic initiatives. At Rutgers, she walked into a department that had reported a $47 million shortfall during fiscal year 2025, and even with a $17 million rise in the Big Ten media rights distributions coming its way, her department pushed forward significant changes to limit inefficiencies and overhead while boosting revenue-generating opportunities.
At the top of the list was restructuring and merging three ticket operations into a single entity. Rutgers had a traditional box office that reported to the business office. Its premium ticketing was funneled through its philanthropic “R Fund.” Third-party ticket sales went through Scarlet Assets Management Company (SAMCO), a subsidiary formed in 2024 to unify multimedia and naming rights, merchandise and ticket sales.
“Not great, right?” Zinn said.
With SAMCO facing new tax exposure after recommendations from the New Jersey attorney general’s office, Zinn created Scarlet Knight Enterprises, which merges the athletic department’s business operations under a seven-member advisory board that includes longtime college sports executive Oliver Luck, who serves as chairman, plus YES Network co-founder Finn Wentworth, Nike Basketball vice president Michael Flaherty and NBC Sports broadcaster and former Rutgers athlete Kathryn Tappen.
“It gave us an opportunity to prop up a new structure at a time when we were seeking to really propel ourselves forward with the name, image and likeness landscape,” Zinn said. “Rutgers had not been particularly aggressive in that market in the past, and so this was a great opportunity to move forward in that space.”
Scarlet Knight Enterprises has already produced major results beyond traditional Rutgers donors, Zinn said.
“If you were to look at our revenue, particularly on the corporate side of things, we’re eight figures north of where we were just last fiscal year,” she said. “We’ve got another real growth opportunity for the next fiscal year that we’re projecting and expect to see.
“These aren’t just numbers that we’re throwing into the sky and hoping that we’re going to get there and work hard to do so. We have the inventory and capability to really pair a number of assets there, coupled with a region that is really heavy in that space, and just a ton of opportunity.”
Maryland’s battle for attention
In many ways, Maryland’s financial stagnation is more concerning than Rutgers’ situation. The Terrapins, charter members of the ACC, left one power conference for another because of significant financial issues, and they received money almost equal to vested members upon arrival in the Big Ten through a mix of travel stipends and borrowing capabilities.
That financial raft allowed Maryland to stay afloat, but Maryland’s league payouts have been garnished for repayment ever since, and the department has struggled to keep up.
With only $11.3 million in donations during the 2025 fiscal year coupled with low ticket sales, Maryland’s combined $21.61 million from donations and ticket sales during the 2025 fiscal year ranks below every other public school. Even in a year in which its showcase men’s basketball program reached the Sweet 16, Maryland still sat mid-pack in gate revenue ($5.26 million).
“We can definitely improve,” Maryland athletic director Jim Smith said. “It starts with fan experience from my perspective; all revenue drives out of a fan experience.”
It sounds simple, but Maryland has been unable to maintain momentum in an uber-competitive sports market. Located in the Washington D.C. suburbs and only 30 miles from Baltimore, Maryland sits in the middle of a major metropolitan area with effective mass transit. It’s an area that Smith calls “a wonderful double-edged sword” because Maryland also faces competition on two fronts. The region’s pro teams, in particular the Commanders and Ravens, tend to overshadow Terps football.
“For football, you own Saturday, right?” Smith said. “Just own it, make it yours, make sure no one else ever gets in the way of your Saturdays for football. Basketball in the Big Ten, it’s a little harder. We’re playing every day of the week. It’s a challenge, but that’s the schedule we’ve got to figure out.”
Smith spent five years with the Atlanta Braves as the senior vice president of business strategy after leading the Ohio State University Alumni Association and filling multiple executive positions with the Atlanta Falcons, including marketing. His expertise lies in boosting relevance and competing in a crowded marketplace.
But for Maryland to elevate its prominence in the DMV and beyond, the football program will have to be more consistent. Over the last five years, the Terrapins are 18-2 in their first four games of a season, but they’ve gone a combined 14-29 the rest of the way, including a 2-14 record the last two seasons. Three consecutive bowl wins from 2021 to 2023 have done little to counteract the fan apathy borne out of momentum-crushing losses during the regular season.
In a league with six different members that have reached the College Football Playoff semifinals in the last three seasons, it’s difficult to make headway.
“We need a product,” Smith said. “We were competitive last year, but we didn’t win. We have to be competitive and win a few more games, and that will definitely help.”
Coach Mike Locksley is regarded as one of the nation’s top recruiters, but Maryland may have the Big Ten’s lowest NIL budget for football, and its revenue-generating sports face internal competition for NIL funding beyond men’s and women’s basketball. Maryland has nationally relevant programs in soccer, lacrosse and field hockey. Athletes in those sports receive funding, although it’s small by comparison with football and basketball.
“There’s a philosophical debate,” Smith said. “Does every football program need to spend $50 million on a roster to win? I don’t believe so. I think you can spend smart money and be very successful, and I think that’s where we’re going to make our investment while also maintaining our other sports.
“We’ve seen other schools go the opposite way. All-in on football; everybody else, see you later. We don’t have that here. We have a history of being successful in the other sports, so we’re going to continue to invest in that and be smart about how we do it, while winning in football and basketball.”
The future
Indiana’s two-year ascent from college football’s losingest program to national champion gives every athletic department hope.
Perhaps it’s unrealistic for any school to bet on a comparable rise, and even a similar jump in football would take time to improve the financial outlook at the schools Indiana left behind at the bottom of the football standings. The Big Ten’s year-over-year media rights increase provided Rutgers ($17 million) and Maryland ($14.5 million) with a huge boost in fiscal 2026, but the introduction of revenue sharing with athletes created a $20.5 million expenditure for every athletic department.
Still, the programs believe they are well-positioned for the future. Smith feels good about Maryland’s facilities, so he can focus on investing in the rosters. Locksley’s development-first strategy is more cost-effective than going portal-heavy, but it can take time to produce results.
At Rutgers, football coach Greg Schiano returned to Piscataway in 2020 and has taken the program to modest respectability after horrific results in the school’s first six Big Ten seasons. Unlike at Maryland’s SECU Stadium, Rutgers’ press box and suites are woefully behind other Big Ten programs. If the Scarlet Knights can surge on the football field and reverse some of their financial difficulties, it’s possible to envision a renovation in the near future.
Whether football can gain a foothold at either school remains a question. But that doesn’t mean they can’t make strides to elevate their financial well-being. That’s what is driving both athletic directors as they approach their first anniversary.
“I’m in a mindset of quite a bit of optimism, surrounding what I’ve seen over the past 10 months,” Zinn said.
“It’s very competitive,” Smith said. “You have to have a really good strategy to be able to go to market and understand how you’re going to be able to grow your business and your fan base in really competitive markets.”
