Rutgers Football 2026 Schedule Finalized By Big Ten
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The 2026 Big Ten football schedules were released at 5:30 Eastern on the Big Ten Network, allowing fans to see when and where their favorite teams would play in the 2026 season. This included Rutgers, which will look to get back to a bowl game after narrowly missing out in 2025. Although there are big-time challenges on the schedule, including a visit from the national champion Hoosiers to begin October, the more favorable Big Ten slate allows Rutgers to make a push for a bowl game once again.
Full Rutgers 2026 Schedule
Photo Credit: Rutgers Athletics
Another Home-Heavy Start For Rutgers
The 2025 season started with four straight home games before Rutgers traveled to Minnesota for its road opener in late September, and the 2026 season is more of the same. After another Thursday night opener, this time against former Scarlet Knights DC Joe Harasymiak and the UMass Minutemen, Rutgers travels to Massachusetts to battle Boston College in the Eagles’ annual Red Bandana game, which is set for Friday, September 11th.
The Big Ten slate gets started early, as the conference elected to move the USC game into Week 3 and bump the game against Howard to Week 4. Finally, in what will likely be the homecoming game, Indiana makes their long-awaited return to SHI Stadium in Week 5 to begin October.
Rutgers won the last three games in the series from 2021 to 2023, even though they struggled in Big Ten play, but the Hoosiers are now coming off a national championship and will almost certainly be the toughest opponent on the 2026 schedule. The Scarlet Knights have Howard sandwiched in between the Big Ten opener against USC and a massive game against Indiana, rather than facing the Trojans and Hoosiers on back-to-back weeks.
Winnable Road Games, Big Home Finale
After five straight games, Rutgers will have its bye week as it sits idle on October 10th. Following that, the Scarlet Knights will travel to College Park to face Maryland on October 17th, a must-win for bowl purposes. Although Northwestern is on an upward trajectory, Rutgers will look to win back-to-back conference road games when it travels to Chicago to battle the Wildcats on October 24th. The last time the teams played was the 2023 season opener, a 24-7 win for Rutgers in a rare Sunday afternoon game.
Rutgers will return home for the first time since October 3rd to battle Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan Wolverines on October 31st, also for the first time since 2023. After a few frustratingly close losses, Michigan pulled away from Rutgers in November of 2022 after the Knights led 17-14 at halftime. In the Wolverines’ championship season in 2023, they handed Rutgers its first loss, 31-7, in Ann Arbor.
The Scarlet Knights will open November on the road to take on Wisconsin, another opponent that has given Rutgers fits over the years. After the Knights failed to close the gap in 2023, falling 24-13 in Madison, the Badgers caught Rutgers at the best time in 2024, cruising to a 42-7 victory in Piscataway. However, Wisconsin is coming off a down season at just 4-8 and may be struggling once again when Rutgers comes to visit.
Rutgers will then host Nebraska, which handed the Knights their first loss in 2024, 14-7 in Lincoln. Rutgers is 0-6 against the Cornhuskers, falling 14-13 on a Black Friday night game after Noah Vedral’s hand gave out upon his return in 2023. The Knights will then take on Penn State’s Matt Campbell as they look to break a long losing streak to the Nittany Lions and avenge a 40-36 heartbreaker to end the 2025 season.
Although the Big Ten home slate is not kind to Rutgers, with USC, Indiana, Michigan, and Nebraska coming to Piscataway, the finale will be against Michigan State, a team that Rutgers has a favorable recent history against. The Spartans lead the all-time series 8-3, but Rutgers won 27-24 after falling behind 24-6 in 2023, a win they would need for bowl eligibility.
In 2024, the teams met in East Lansing for the season finale, and Michigan State needed a win for bowl eligibility while Rutgers already had six wins. However, the Knights would not relent, bouncing back from a heartbreaking loss against Illinois the week before by burying the Spartans in the snow 41-14. The season may come down to this game for one or both programs, as Rutgers finishes the season at SHI Stadium for the second straight year.
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