Rutgers Extends Contract Of Athletic Director Pat Hobbs Through June 2028

Rutgers University has extended the contract of athletic director Pat Hobbs through the end of the 2027-28 academic year, the school announced Friday.

The extension for Hobbs, who was hired in November 2015, was unanimously approved by Rutgers’ Board of Governors. Hobbs’ base pay in 2020-21 was $1,029,679, according to USA Today data, and his gross pay was $1,313,759.

The amended contract raises the cap on potential bonus payments to Hobbs from $100,000 to $200,000 if “athletics teams’ top goals are reached,” according to the university.

“I want to thank President (Jonathan) Holloway, the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees,” Hobbs said in a statement. “Our coaches, student-athletes and staff are dedicated, hardworking and passionate about being Scarlet Knights. I consider myself fortunate to serve as Athletic Director at a great university, with a team that is committed to the pursuit of excellence, and I look forward to continuing to join them in writing the greatest chapter in Rutgers history.

“What they have been able to achieve over the past six years personifies Jersey grit,” he added. “Rutgers has the biggest upside of any program in the country, and I wouldn’t want to do this anywhere else.”

“Pat has been enormously successful in developing a program that is as solid in the classroom as it is on the field,” Holloway said in the statement. “The Board’s decision to extend his contract reflects the confidence we have in his commitment to excellence at every level.”

Hobbs’ tenure has been most notable for his hirings of men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell and football coach Greg Schiano. Pikiell, who guided Rutgers to the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, was re-upped by Hobbs to a four-year contract extension last month which runs through the 2029-30 season and will pay Pikiell an additional $16 million over those four years.

The Scarlet Knights had not been to the NCAAs since 1991 until these past two seasons.

Schiano, in his second tour of duty at Rutgers, was hired by Hobbs in December 2019 after the disastrous tenure of Chris Ash, Hobbs’ first hire, less than two weeks after he took the job. Schiano is 8-14 since returning. The Scarlet Knights lost to Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Eve in 2021, playing the game on a week’s notice after Texas A&M dropped out due to Covid.

On the marketing side, Hobbs last year completed a naming-rights deal for the basketball arena, known as the RAC, to become Jersey Mike’s Arena. The sandwich chain will pay the university $28 million over 20 years, per NJ Advance Media.

Coincidentally, until last month, Hobbs also had been responsible for hiring the men’s basketball coach for Rutgers’ rival, Seton Hall. Hobbs hired Kevin Willard while he was interim AD at Seton Hall, where he was once the Dean of the Seton Hall Law School. Willard left Seton Hall after a 12-year tenure to take over the Maryland program.