Notre Dame pulled away from Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl Saturday, and it appears the loss came at a cost for the Scarlet Knights. According to The Star Ledger, Rutgers will not receive a bowl share from the American Athletic Conference this season.
According to the report, the conference will be withholding a total payment fo $1.5 million from Rutgers, who moves in to the Big Ten in 2014. Rutgers and the AAC are involved in ongoing legal battle to settle on an exit fee before the Scarlet Knights move to the Big Ten.
“Because there is pending litigation, I can’t comment,” Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann said to The Star Ledger. As the New Jersey paper notes, bowl payments are usually not made to schools until the spring, so withholding the payment now is merely nothing more than a power play by the conference.
The withholding of the bowl payment should also not be too much if a surprise. Once schools decide to leave for another conference it is common for that school to see a reduction in voting power and some reduction in certain payouts within the conference. Rutgers is also claiming the conference has withheld some of the negotiated exit fees it believes it is owed following settlements with Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
If Rutgers does not receive the $1.5 million bowl payout from the conference, it is likely the university will be one of many schools to take a hit in the pockets this bowl season. Rutgers turned a slim profit the last time they played in the Pinstripe Bowl, and the budgeted bowl payout was expected to be needed in order for the school to record a profit this year as well.