Be it during his first stint atop Rutgers football or now in his second, Greg Schiano never has had the largest pool of resources to make his programs competitive.
Still, Schiano closed his first tour of duty at Rutgers with winning seasons in six of his final seven years, and he's posted back-to-back bowl appearances in his Scarlet Knights rebirth.
But Schiano, understandably, is hoping that a final ruling on the long-anticipated House Settlement -- April 7, to be exact -- will perhaps generate a bit more equal footing in college athletics, specifically Power Conference football, for the schools who opt-in to the revenue-sharing agreement.
"The interesting thing is going to be what happens to NIL," Schiano said this week at the onset of Rutgers' spring practice. "If everybody says, 'Well, there's going to be a clearing house and all these things ...' I hope it works. That would be unbelievable.
"But I've been doing this a long time, and there's teams in our league that have paid $25 or $30 million for their roster last year. I don't think they are going to take a pay cut. So, how that all gets sorted out, that's going to be the interesting part, but I don't really care."
Schiano might say he doesn't care, but the reality of his program suggests otherwise: Rutgers is resident in the 18-team Big Ten, which includes returning College Football Playoff participants Oregon, Penn State and Ohio State all on the program's 2025 schedule.
Ohio State, of course, is the defending CFP national champions; all three of those programs are widely reported to have among the deepest, most expensive rosters and de facto payrolls in all of college football.
The Scarlet Knights also already are dealing with a prominent NIL situation. Jett Elad is an impending NCAA Transfer Portal addition to the Rutgers program.
Seeking to extend his eligibility and earn a six-figure payday in the process by suiting up for Rutgers, Elad is taking the NCAA to court per myriad reports.
Schiano won't confirm that Elad could have a $500,000 deal at hand from Rutgers, but he did address the situation.
"Yeah, I'm never going to get into, unless I'm publicly required to reveal it, I'll never get into who is getting what," Schiano said. "Just don't believe everything you read, is something that I learned a long time ago.
"Jett is a really good player. Glad he's here."
