Rutgers AD Keli Zinn: 'We have met our goal' for basketball fundraising

If you’re a Rutgers basketball fan looking for optimism that things are going to improve in a hurry this offseason, listen to first-year athletics director Keli Zinn.

Speaking at length as a guest on the Jersey Jump Shot podcast, Zinn said the fruit of her staff’s work in terms of fundraising and corporate partnerships will be evident as Steve Pikiell and first-year general manager Rob Sullivan put the 2026-27 team together.

“We are in a spot now where we have met our goal for name, image and likeness third-party support for that program,” Zinn said. “They’ll be able to get into the portal and get aggressive, while also being in a position to retain the talent that they wish to keep here at the close of the season.”

That is a stark departure from where the program was in the past couple of offseasons as the onset of free agency turned the sport upside down. Rutgers was believed to have one of the Big Ten’s smallest roster budgets last offseason, with some individual players in the league making as much money as the entire Scarlet Knights’ team.

“Having had the opportunity to look really early on at our roster investment and what that was, it did not reflect what I was seeing across the country for some of the more top-tier programs in the league,” Zinn said. “And as a result we had some work to do there. You’ll see that find itself in a much better spot here at the close of the season when the portal opens up. We feel really good about where we are.”

Prior to Zinn’s arrival, Pikiell was basically left on his own to fundraise for the program’s war chest. Zinn has provided him with him the infrastructure that was lacking.

“I see a group who really understands what it needs to be successful here,” she said of the men’s basketball staff. “They work really hard, they’ve got great chemistry with people. They’re good recruiters – you’ve seen that some in the past with some ability we’ve shown to really grab elite talent.

“We now need to do that with more guys and put some depth in that roster. I do have faith and optimism for them, because we have now gotten it in a place where they have what they need to go do that.”

Also in the wide-ranging podcast interview, Zinn discussed renovating Jersey Mike’s Arena while keeping its noted home-court advantage, her hopes for the women’s basketball program now that a head-coaching search is underway, her interactions with fans this season at Jersey Mike’s Arena, and the newly launched Scarlet Knight Enterprises, Inc. She also provided some insight into the challenge of being a power-conference AD at a time of constant upheaval in the college-sports landscape.

Jersey Jump Shot can be accessed at the Asbury Park Press YouTube channel and on all major audio-podcast platforms.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers AD Keli Zinn: 'We have met our goal' for basketball funds