Rutgers 2025 Football Schedule: Best & Worst Scenarios, Season Prediction

Who does Rutgers miss from the Big Ten schedule?

Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin

You’re not happy if you’re a Rutgers fan. Yes, Indiana was fantastic last year, but will that last? Yes, Michigan State will be better, and so will Wisconsin, and UCLA, but four of the eight teams the Scarlet Knights miss didn’t go bowling last year, and Nebraska isn’t an out-of-reach game.

Sure, missing Michigan and USC is nice, but that’s not enough.

Rutgers football schedule, the good and the bad

The Good: Rutgers is already 3-0. It will take a faceplant to not beat Ohio, Miami University, and Norfolk State, and Iowa is a home game to potentially make it 4-0.

The road date at Purdue might be a win, and getting Maryland at home should help get the team bowling, but …

The Bad: Rutgers had better get to six wins by November 8th, or uh-oh.

There’s a week off before going to Ohio State, but that might not matter too much. With that and Penn State to close, and with Oregon on the slate, and four road games in five dates, this isn’t easy.

Rutgers Football Schedule: Best and worst case scenarios

Best Case Scenario: Rutgers beats Iowa. It gets to 4-0, pulls off a tough win at Minnesota, rests up, and stuns Washington in Seattle to get to 6-0 as the This Year’s Indiana pieces are flowing.

Realistically the finishing kick is a problem, but wins over Purdue and Maryland make it a strong season.

Worst Case Scenario: There’s a blown tire against Ohio or Miami University - those should once again be among the best teams in the MAC. The Iowa game is a loss, the trip to Minnesota is a loss, and all of a sudden the team is 2-3 before losing at Washington and at home against Oregon.

At that point, forget it with at Illinois, at Ohio State, and Penn State to go.

Season Prediction: (Feb. 3) Rutgers is Rutgers. It’s plucky - but with a little more offense now - and it pushes through the first part of the slate to build up a good enough base of wins to fight its way to six. But there won’t be that big stunner to do much more than become bowl eligible.

The Season Prediction will be updated several times this offseason