Problems Pile On for Rutgers Football

Note: This piece was recorded and aired before further details about the Carroo incident were released.

It just keeps getting worse for Rutgers football.

Star player Leonte Carroo, who's been called the "Face of Rutgers," has been suspended after being arrested for his alleged role in a domestic violence incident outside the team's training facility in Piscataway, NJ. 

The arrest and suspension of the Scarlet Knight's most popular player are the latest stains on a program which has been mired in controversy.

Earlier this month, six other players were kicked off the team after their arrests on assault and home invasion charges. Meanwhile, coach Kyle Flood is being investigated for possible improper conduct, after he reached out to a professor about a player's grade.

Rutgers has gone "all in" on its football program in recent years. The school's athletics are among the most highly-subsidized in the country, and football coach Flood is the highest-paid public employee in New Jersey. The school joined the Big Ten athletic conference last year in a bid to boost its visibility and its profits.

Dan Duggan covers Rutgers football for NJ Advance Media. He told WNYC's Jami Floyd that in an era of increasing tuition and stagnant faculty wages, the negative publicity isn't helping to ease the tension on Rutgers' campus over its big investment.

"There's people here on the academic side that didn't want to 'go big time.' Period," Duggan said. "The faculty union president is really concerned about there being a firewall. That athletics and academics have to be separate [and] athletics can't be driving the ship."