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Rutgers football team dropped their final game of the season to Maryland at home, 40-16. As a result, the Scarlet Knights fell to 5-7 on the season, one win short of qualifying for a bowl game. All fans can do is look back on the season in various ways: to celebrate those upperclassmen who are moving on beyond RU, to look at stats and project for next season, or even try and see where the team matches up after the season to start preparing for next season.
Paul Myerberg released his weekly re-rank of all 130 FBS schools on Monday, and after the unpredictable college football season, there was of course still plenty of movement across the landscape of NCAA football. Before taking a look at where Rutgers stands compared to the Big Ten or the entire FBS, remember they fell short of their postseason dreams this year. With 80 teams now playing in bowl games. That may be a predictor for you when thinking about where they might land.
Rutgers reached No. 56 in the re-rank after week 4, their first loss in a tough-fought contest against now No. 3 Maryland. This week, Rutgers came in at No. 85, their lowest ranking of the season. The team’s outlook going into next season should be optimistic as a result of the bright spots they had. They had a lot of experts’ attention and continue to build a strong recruiting class.
Minnesota had the biggest rise, while Wisconsin had the steepest drop in the Big Ten. Let’s take a look at how the Scarlet Knights lined up with the rest of the conference.
| Last Week’s rank | Teams | This Week’s rank |
| 4 | Ohio State | 8 |
| 5 | Michigan | 3 |
| 11 | Iowa | 11 |
| 15 | Michigan State | 13 |
| 24 | Wisconsin | 37 |
| 32 | Penn State | 32 |
| 36 | Purdue | 34 |
| 42 | Minnesota | 33 |
| 74 | Nebraska | 84 |
| 77 | Maryland | 75 |
| 80 | Rutgers | 85 |
| 92 | Illinois | 90 |
| 100 | Northwestern | 105 |
| 107 | Indiana | 109 |