The chances of Rutgers reaching a third consecutive bowl this fall have gone from highly likely to a 50/50 proposition following its first loss of the 2025 season.
That is according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, which listed the Scarlet Knights’ odds of winning at least six games and earning a bowl bid at 50.9% in its latest projections.
That marks a 26.2% drop from last week’s odds for Rutgers (3-1, 0-1), which suffered a 38-31 defeat to Iowa (3-1, 1-0) in its Big Ten opener on Friday night in Piscataway.
Two other outlets dropped the Scarlet Knights from their bowl projections as well.
Here is what bowl projections are saying about the Scarlet Knights:
ESPN (Kyle Bonagura): GameAbove Sports Bowl (Detroit) vs. Toledo (MAC) on Friday, Dec. 26.
ESPN (Mark Schlabach): GameAbove Sports Bowl (Detroit) vs. Buffalo (MAC) on Friday, Dec. 26.
After projecting the Scarlet Knights to go to the Pinstripe and First Responders bowls last week, the ESPN duo agree on sending Rutgers to Detroit the day after Christmas.
If that plays out, it would mark the second time in program history that the Scarlet Knights participate in this bowl. Rutgers previously defeated North Carolina at Ford Field in the 2014 season.
The selection would also make the GameAbove Sports Bowl the third postseason game that the Scarlet Knights have participated in multiple times. They previously played in the Pinstripe Bowl three times and the Rate Bowl twice.
It would also mean Rutgers would face a MAC team for the third time this season, adding to the trend of the Scarlet Knights facing the conference often under head coach Greg Schiano.
The following outlets did not predict Rutgers to land in a bowl game in their latest projections: On3, Athlon, CBS.
While On3’s Brett McMurphy remained steadfast in his decision to not include the Scarlet Knights in his projections, CBS and Athlon dropped Rutgers after both projecting the Scarlet Knights to go to the GameAbove Sports Bowl last week.
Rutgers was one of 20 teams Athlon listed as “just missing the projections.”