The Athletic Drops Rutgers 57 Spots in Power Rankings After UMass Loss, Lowest Ranking for a Power Four Team in 10 Years

The Athletic Drops Rutgers 57 Spots in Power Rankings After UMass Loss, Lowest Ranking for a Power Four Team in 10 Years

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The Athletic Drops Rutgers 57 Spots in Power Rankings After UMass Loss, Lowest Ranking for a Power Four Team in 10 Years
PISCATAWAY, NJ – SEPTEMBER 03: KJ Duff #8 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights during the game against the Massachusetts Minutemen on September 3, 2026 at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Over the past few days, several national college football publications and websites have released power ranking lists for all 138 FBS college football teams following Week 0 and Week 1 of the 2026 college football season. None of these sites have been particularly kind to Rutgers following their season-opening 37-21 loss to UMass, with almost all of them dropping the Scarlet Knights by double-digit rankings. The most brutal of these sites was The Athletic, which dropped Rutgers 57 spots from 79 to 136.

First off, the title of the article is “Re-ranking 138 college football teams after Week 1: LSU starts on top, Rutgers hits a new low”- not a fun start by any means. The rest of the parts of the article that mention Rutgers aren’t much better.

“The most shocking win was, of course, UMass’ 37-21 victory at Rutgers, ending a 16-game losing streak and 23-game Football Bowl Subdivision losing streak. For that, the Minutemen rise to No. 100. It’s the first time since early in the 2025 season that UMass is not ranked last, and it’s the first time in 10 years of these rankings that UMass is inside the top 100. The Minutemen’s previous high was No. 102 late in the 2018 season. Congrats to UMass,” said Athletic writer Chris Vannini in the article.

“Rutgers falls all the way to No. 136 for that blowout loss to UMass, which wasn’t as close as the 16-point final margin would indicate. This is the new lowest position for a Power 4 team in 10 years of these rankings,” said Athletic writer Chris Vannini in the article.

While Rutgers’ performance against UMass is inexcusable and has put the Knights in the same ranking bracket as teams like Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Utah State and Charlotte in the eyes of the Athletic. While Rutgers’ loss to UMass is an incredibly tough pill to swallow, being rated in the bottom three teams in the country still seems a little low. Even a terrible Big Ten team should be able to stay out of there.

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