Twenty years ago, Rutgers finished the 2006 season at 11-2 and was ranked No. 12 in the final AP Top 25 poll. That seems like forever ago -- probably because it was -- but do the Scarlet Knights have hope of ever reaching those heights again? Rutgers went without a winning season from 1993-2004, until the team went 7-5 in Greg Schiano's fifth year.
That kicked off a decade of success for the Scarlet Knights, during which they compiled a 79-49 record under Schiano and Kyle Flood. After that, the Big Ten sank its teeth into Rutgers, and the program has won six or more games twice since 2015. The high-water marks were back-to-back 7-6 seasons in 2023 and 2024.
Rutgers has already gone from conference bottom-feeder to perennial contender once in its history. A lot has changed since then, and the modern Big Ten is a much different beast than the Big East, but schools like Indiana have given dilapidated football programs hope that things can change quickly. So, how realistic is a potential Big Ten ascension for Rutgers?
Things broke the right way for the Scarlet Knights in the Big East, and it would take another perfect storm for them to join the Big Ten's upper echelon. Before we dive into how Rutgers could restore its former glory, we have to dive deeper into how the program achieved that glory in the first place. In 2004, Miami and Virginia Tech departed the Big East to join the ACC.
That left a lot of wins on the table for other programs, and Schiano should get credit for taking advantage of that, but we also don't have to pretend that the Scarlet Knights were playing in anything but a hollow shell of the Big East. Here are the conference standings from Rutgers' magical 2006 season: Although the Scarlet Knights didn't win the Big East that season, they did upset No. 3 Louisville in what is likely the biggest win in program history. Late-season letdowns against Cincinnati and No. 15 West Virginia prevented Rutgers from finishing atop the standings.
A tie for second is as close as Rutgers came to winning the Big East, even after its heavy-hitters left. Over their last seven seasons in the Big Ten, the Scarlet Knights were just six games above .500 in conference play at 30-24. Given the history of Rutgers football until that point, that is a major success for the program.
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