New Jersey and you -- Perfect together

by Greg Wiley

Years ago, New Jersey had a marketing slogan, maybe you remember it -- New Jersey and You, Perfect Together. I was reminded of this on Monday when Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano apparently shunned the University of Miami to stay in the Garden State with the Scarlet Knights.

I might be in the minority, but here are some reasons why Schiano made the right choice to stay at Rutgers and not go to sunny South Beach.

1) The Big East is weak. Being in a an inferior football conference, Rutgers will have a shot at a BCS Bowl almost every year. The result would be a payday on the $14 million range. While a national title will be harder to come by, it doesn't really matter. If university presidents and coaches were really interested in titles and not money, there would be a playoff not the lucrative bowl system.

2) Similar to Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springstein, Schiano is a Jersey boy through and through. Schiano was born in Jersey and is an alum of Rutgers. His wife loves it in the state and the couple recently bought land in the
Piscataway area to build a home. Does that sound like someone who wants to leave?

3) With Rutgers being the only Division-I football school located in the No. 1 media market in the country, Schiano has the ability to rise to movie-star status. Don't get me wrong, Miami is a major player in the college football world year in and year out, and the city is nice if you want to be a horrible actor on some crime scene show (cough, David Carruso), but when it comes down to it New York is the place to be. I can see Schiano guest starring in the finale of The Soprano's. He's not doing that in Miami.

4) The pressure for a national title at Rutgers is much less than Miami. At Miami, you're expected to field a national title contender every year. If you don't contend, your job is on the line. Rutgers, meanwhile, doesn't have those pressures. If he already isn't, Schiano will be the highest paid employee of the State of New Jersey soon and when you're talking just a few million bucks, why not take the job with less pressure. You'll live a lot longer.

5) When Schiano took the job with Rutgers, he called the program a sleeping giant, believing the school was located in a ripe recruiting area and in a region starved for a college football team. He was right. New Jersey loses a lot of star players to other out-of-state programs. If Schiano can keep just a small amount of those players in state he should field a solid team for years to come.

6) Miami is a program in turmoil right now. Former head coach Larry Coker did a horrendous job in keeping discipline amongst his players with the low light coming this season when an on-field brawl against in-city rival Florida International turned into a public relations nightmare. President Donna Shalala basically excused the behavior of the players and the university appeared slow in handing out suspensions. With major bowl money still up for grabs, the school appeared more interested in the payday than making a statement. A few years back when South Carolina and Clemson engaged in an on-field brawl, each school refused to take part in a bowl as punishment. Not Miami. Not this time. Why go to a program that clearly has its priorities wrong? It will only spell trouble for Schiano in the long run.

I know, most of you think I'm crazy...

Well, I'm not -- I too am a Jersey boy.