It will be a second straight bowl appearance for Rutgers football, with the Sporting News projecting another postseason berth for the Big Ten program.
The projections come from the highly-respected Bill Bender (who is a great follow on Twitter X). Bender has projected all 35 non-College Football Playoff bowl games and the result is poignant for Rutgers.
Rutgers finished last year 7-6 (3-6 Big Ten).
The projection has Rutgers in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 26 against Maryland. The game is held at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rutgers played in this bowl game in 2005 against Arizona State in what was their first postseason appearance under head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag]. Last year, they played in the Pinstripe Bowl, defeating Miami.
The Pinstripe Bowl was the scene of Schiano’s last game with Rutgers in 2011 before he left for the NFL. So in back-to-back years, Rutgers will have played in the first and last bowl game under Schiano.
Fitting from Bender, isn’t it?
Here are the Sporting News bowl game projections for all the Big Ten programs:
- Detroit Bowl (Ohio vs. Michigan State, Dec. 26)
- Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Rutgers vs. West Virginia, Dec. 26)
- Pinstripe Bowl (Louisville vs. Maryland, Dec. 28)
- Music City Bowl (Wisconsin vs. Tennessee, Dec. 30)
- Reliaquest Bowl (Nebraska vs. Texas A&M, Dec. 31)
- Citrus Bowl (LSU vs. Penn State, Dec. 31)
- Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Miami vs. Iowa, Jan. 3)
- Holiday Bowl (Pittsburgh vs. Washington, TBD)
Extrapolating these projections means that Bender seems to see Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon and USC making the expanded College Football Playoff.