ESPN is projecting that Rutgers football is heading to the Music City Bowl. The opponent would be Tennessee.
The game would essentially be a road one for Rutgers, given that Nashville is in Tennessee. The Volunteers played at Nissan Stadium earlier this year.
It would be a fitting projection by ESPN for Rutgers. In 2005, the first year of bowl eligibility for Rutgers, the program played in the Insight Bowl (Phoenix, Arizona) against Arizona State. This is the first year of bowl eligibility for Rutgers under Schiano and would set up a similar scenario.
Tennessee went on the road and beat Kentucky this weekend. With the win, they are now 6-2 (3-2 SEC) and are ranked No. 16 in the nation in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
The projection from ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura likely means that Rutgers would need to win at least one if not two of their remaining four games.
The other projection is from ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and has Rutgers playing Boston College on Dec. 28 in the Pinstripe Bowl. The bowl game is the closest to Rutgers with the venue famed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
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The common theme for both games? Jason Baum.
A long-tenured senior associate athletic director and chief communications officer at Rutgers, Baum recently was the senior associate athletic director at Boston College.
He is currently the executive associate athletics director of brand advancement and chief communications officer with Tennessee athletics.
Just call it the Baum Bowl and be done with it.
