Greg Schiano said it jokingly, but there is certainly an element of truth to his statement about the Rutgers football schedule in 2024. It isn’t easy to say the least.
With the loss of divisions beginning next season, most teams in the Big Ten East are breathing a sigh of relief. Given that the division is considered one of the toughest (if not the toughest) in college football, it would seem that for Rutgers, being able to mix and integrate their schedule with teams from the Big Ten’s other division would be a good thing.
After all, three East teams finished last year ranked in the top 10 of the polls and two of those teams went to the College Football Playoff.
With that being said, the 2024 conference schedule won’t be very different for Rutgers, except that they swap out Indiana (whom they have beaten the last two years) for UCLA.
So in short, it is the same, grueling schedule that they’ve had since joining the Big Ten in 2014.
“Well, believe it or not, we must have made somebody mad or something because in ’24 we get the entire Big 10 East except for Indiana on our schedule,” Schiano said in an interview with NBC Sports Chicago’s James Neveau. “So yeah, I think for us it won’t be much different in ’23 or ’24.”
The gauntlet that is the Big Ten and in particular the East division, certainly isn’t lost on Schiano. The Scarlet Knights are in their fourth season under Schiano following his return to the program.
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“I would say it’s almost every week, you have to show up on a big stage in the Big Ten, at least your conference games. So I think our guys understand that,” Schiano told Neveau.
“We’re not trying to be a better version of Ohio State or a better version of Michigan. We’re different. And we know that and we’re trying to do it differently. And what does that gonna look like? We’re just gonna have to wait and see.”
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