A loss on Saturday at No. 2 Michigan can’t slow down the projections that Rutgers football is in the right direction to make a bowl game.
Athlon Sports’ latest projections came on Sunday and they have Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl where they would face Wake Forest. There is a bit of irony in all of this as Rutgers made their last bowl appearance in 2021 in the Gator Bowl against none other than Wake Forest.
Rutgers qualified for that bowl game after Texas A&M had to withdraw from the contest.
The Pinstripe Bowl is familiar turf for Rutgers as they’ve previously played in the game twice before. Played in the Bronx, it is also the closest bowl game for Rutgers in terms of geographic proximity.
In 2011, Rutgers won the second-ever Pinstripe Bowl over Iowa State in what was the last game of head coach Greg Schiano’s first tenure with the program. Then two years later, Rutgers lost to a ranked Notre Dame.
That was Rutgers’ final game as a member of the Big East...American Athletic Conference….whatever that conference was or is…
While it isn’t a New Year’s Six bowl game, it is still a return to the postseason outright for the first time since 2014. That first year in the Big Ten saw Rutgers finish 8-5 and with a bowl win over North Carolina in the Quick Lane Bowl.