How Rutgers’ new AD is working to change culture — and raise money

Kelli Zinn had only been on the job as athletics director at Rutgers for a few weeks before she was hit with that silly cliche question about Taylor ham or pork roll.

She’ll be the first to admit: She fumbled the question.

It was an introduction to the nuances of New Jersey that an outsider wouldn’t know about. But being the talented administrator and rising star in college athletics that she is, Zinn quickly found her footing. So, when she was asked about it Wednesday, during a fireside chat at the Women Business Leaders Forum event by the N.J. Business & Industry Association, she had the perfect answer: Pork roll … with a twist.

“If anyone in the room is connected to Taylor ham, I am prepared to move off of my pork roll stance to Taylor ham if said Taylor ham offers up a sponsorship for the athletics department, complete with name image and likeness possibilities,” she said.

She won the room over with her humor. Now the task is to win the business community over with her vision for Rutgers athletics.

Name, image and likeness, better known as NIL, better known as the way colleges can now compensate their players, better known as one of the bigger metrics in determining wins and losses, is changing everything in college sports.

Zinn and her staff will need to work the state for funding.

Admittedly, it will be a much tougher sell than her previous stop: Louisiana State University, which has a popularity and fan base that far exceeds the limited number of pro teams in the region.

Zinn said she’s ready for the challenge — a challenge she said starts with the creation of a winning mindset, one that embraces NIL.

“As we’ve talked a lot about the strategy we’re taking on internally and through some of our external parties to obviously elevate Rutgers athletics and our competitive space in particular, there are a number of really encouraging things about what exists here,” she told a crowd of more than 500.

A recent ruling has provided an opportunity for schools that have done well in college sports, or those who have been seeking an edge or advantage to be in a better competitive space, to move forward.

“Certainly, that was one of the pieces that attracted me to (Rutgers),” she said. “Admittedly, and as many of you who have followed it closely know, we’ve got some work to do as it relates to our capability in the competitive space and boosting our programs athletically.”

Zinn, a trailblazer as both a female athlete and now a female athletic director competing in a still male-dominated profession, said she will sell hope and optimism.

“People want to be a part of something that’s exciting, that has the capability to really boost the people involved, but all those around it — and that’s exactly what we’re capable of doing,” she said. “Showing that vision to people, and helping them see that picture before it’s realized, is something that can create some real optimism and expectations in the world of sports.

“We don’t know if it’s going to end up (as a win) when the clock ticks down, but getting people to get behind it, in a way where they can feel good about it, starts with my ability, and my team’s ability, and the coaches and student-athletes to be able to show why we’re capable of that success. That’s what you’re going to see from us.”

Zinn said she’s already heard from the nay-sayers, of which there are plenty. And she’s undeterred.

“There (have) been a number of folks who have said, ‘My gosh, do you really know what you’re up against?’” she said. “I think when they hear what my vision, and what President Tate’s vision is, for Rutgers, and they then layer that in a history of some real challenges in the space, they say, ‘Does she have some blind faith?’

“But, as I’ve shared with some of them, I’d much rather go into it with a little bit of blinders on right now and be bullish in what we are capable of accomplish and move boldly toward that then find myself in a place where I’m looking around and coming up with excuses as to why we can’t get there.”

That’s a far better answer than anything she could have come up with to the Pork Roll/Taylor Ham question. And it answers the question of why she came to Rutgers.

“Right now, we have the opportunity to capitalize on a truly new era of college athletics,” she said. “It wasn’t so much about the history that’s here, but certainly the opportunity for the future.”