An NIL collective that supports Rutgers athletes is launching its most ambitious fundraising campaign yet to cap off the calendar year, and it does so with the public backing from the school’s coaches.
The ‘Knights of the Raritan’ will announce on Monday morning a large-scale “Million Dollar Match” campaign with a stated goal of raising $1 million in 30 days, co-founder and President Jon Newman told NJ Advance Media.
In that span, each dollar donated — either through a one-time contribution or a monthly subscription to the collective’s six membership levels, which range from $10 to $500 — will be matched directly from a $500,000 pledge from six anonymous Rutgers supporters. For a refresher on how KTR operates and what contributing to it means, head here.
The collective’s goal, Newman said, remains the same as the day it launched in May: to support current student-athletes at Rutgers across all sports and help them receive NIL opportunities.
“This is not changing our approach,” Newman said.
BUY RUTGERS BASKETBALL TICKETS: STUBHUB, VIVID SEATS, TICKETSMARTER, TICKETMASTER
Multiple Scarlet Knights are lined up for deals with the collective to promote the fundraising campaign on social media, Newman said, including starting quarterback Gavin Wimsatt, men’s basketball star Caleb McConnell, wrestler Jon Poznanski and baseball star Chris Brito.
“We need to raise as much money as possible across the board for all sports,” Newman said. “This gives us a really good opportunity, especially at this time when people are thinking about end-of-year giving and those types of things. NIL is definitely in the news these days because of the football transfer portal, so we thought this would be a good time of year, especially since we have the money pledged, to try and get folks who perhaps had been waiting to see or hadn’t made up their mind on NIL. The opportunity for them to take one dollar and double it really quickly, we’re hoping, is attractive to folks who have been watching and waiting.”
The campaign and the collective received public support from various head coaches at the school — including head football coach Greg Schiano, men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell, wrestling coach Scott Goodale, baseball coach Steve Owens, women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington and men’s soccer coach Jim McElderry — for the first time. They join Athletic Director Pat Hobbs, who became the first member of the athletic department to demonstrate public support for NIL last month with a letter to the community.
“The Knights of The Raritan have a Million Dollar Match underway. I encourage fans of Rutgers Football and Rutgers Athletics to get on board,” Schiano said in a statement obtained by NJ Advance Media. “Whether it is a one-time gift, or a monthly subscription, your donation will have a major impact on the lives of our student athletes.”
“The commitment from The Knights of The Raritan and our supporters in New Jersey and around the world is essential to the continued growth of our men’s basketball program,” Pikiell said in the same statement. “Our student-athletes have, and will continue to represent Rutgers University at the highest level. I’d like to encourage everyone to support our student-athletes, and with the new match campaign by KTR, you have the opportunity to make a huge difference in the NIL landscape.”
Newman said the public support from the coaches was essential for the campaign to launch.
“For them to be able to promote it was critical to this effort,” Newman said. “I don’t think we would have done this without the ability for the coaches to be able to support us publicly. I think it’s important for the fanbase to know how important this is, not just to football and men’s basketball, but the other coaches.”
The Knights of the Raritan follow an initiative taken by a pair of other NIL collectives supporting Power Five programs.
Crimson and Cream, one of two major NIL collectives supporting Oklahoma, held a 30-day, $3 million donation drive in November in which every $25 subscription would be matched “dollar-for-dollar” by a “generous donor, who wishes to remain anonymous.” The collective announced last week that it reached a little over half of its ambitious goal, with a total of $1,628,922 pledged over the next 12 months.
Success With Honor, a collective supporting Penn State, announced a similar campaign earlier this month with a goal of raising $2 million in 30 days and a single donor — Anthony Misitano, a Penn State alum and booster and the CEO of PAM Health — pledging to match $1 million in donations. Through its first week, the campaign raised $120,470, the collective announced.
The Knights of the Raritan will look to keep up with other collectives throughout the country in the modern-day NIL arms race engulfing college sports.
Schiano raised the alarms as early as July, telling boosters that Rutgers needs “millions” to prevent their best players from being poached. Last month, before the Scarlet Knights’ season finale against Maryland, he said he did not know if the program had to “match people dollar-for-dollar,” but said he was “really hopeful that the Rutgers faithful will get behind (NIL) because we need it.”
In the two weeks since the 45-day winter transfer portal window opened, the Scarlet Knights have not seen any cornerstone players leave the program.
To date, KTR has signed deals with Rutgers athletes across various sports, from men’s basketball players McConnell and Paul Mulcahy to multiple football players including left tackle Willie Tyler and cornerback Kessawn Abraham. The collective also worked with the New Brunswick Development Corporation to facilitate deals with eight female athletes to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX.
Newman declined to share any current numbers on money raised or total members that signed up for the collective since it launched in June. He told NJ Advance Media columnist Steve Politi in October that it had raised about $400,000 and signed up more than 500 people from the Rutgers community.
Want to bet on College Football?
See the best NJ Sports Betting sites
Newman said the collective saw “the needle move” last month after Hobbs publicly encouraged fans in its direction. He hopes the public support from Schiano, Pikiell and others delivers a similar result for their most ambitious campaign yet.
“I think the regular fan, especially given the fact that — and not being critical — it wasn’t until a month ago that the athletic department was able to send them in our direction, I think there was a long period of time going ‘what do we do?’” Newman said. “Getting the coaches’ voices behind it in a big way really gives some direction for the folks who, for whatever reason, have been waiting for that direction.”
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.