Tim Pernetti Resigns as Rutgers Athletic Director

05 Apr, 2013

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Tim Pernetti is out as Rutgers athletic director, two days after the basketball coach he hired, Mike Rice, was dismissed when a video went public showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using anti-gay slurs.

The decision was confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday by a person familiar with the action and who spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not been announced. The school is to hold a campus news conference at 1 p.m. EDT.

Pernetti was given the video in late November by a former employee, Eric Murdock. With the approval of university President Robert Barchi, he suspended Rice for three games, fined him $75,000 and ordered him to attend anger management classes.

But the video was broadcast Tuesday on ESPN, and immediately drew widespread criticism around the country. It showed numerous clips of Rice at practice during his time at Rutgers, firing basketballs at players, grabbing them by their jerseys and yelling obscenities in addition to the slurs.

There has been some discrepancy regarding when exactly Barchi saw the video. Pernetti said the president saw it in November; Barchi said he didn’t see it until this week.

The 42-year-old Pernetti is a Rutgers graduate who played tight end for the Scarlet Knights from 1989-93.

Meantime, there had been an outcry from Rutgers faculty and state legislators to fire both Pernetti and the school president.

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