The Rutgers Football Team's Conference Wins Since Joining the Big Ten

Rutgers University off its 2026 football season tomorrow, home to the University of Massachusetts. They will start the season with 3 non-conference games, and then the Big Ten Conference schedule starts. As the late great college football broadcaster Keith Jackson would have said, From there on in, the social part of the schedule is over, and it will be strictly meat and potatoes.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten Conference for the 2014 season. For most of their history, they were an "Independent" team. From 1991 to 2012, they were members of the Big East Conference. That league broke up, and in 2013, Rutgers signed a deal to join the Big 10 for 2014 onward, playing the 2013 season in the American Athletic Conference (the AAC or "The American").

Here is a list of all the Big 10 games they've won since joining:

1. October 4, 2014: Michigan at home, 26-24. This was a big deal at the time. Little did we know that it wouldn't get any better than this in the near future.

2. November 15, 2014: Indiana at home, 45-23. Indiana were awful then.

3. November 29, 2014: Maryland away, 41-38.

4. October 17, 2015: Indiana away, 55-52. One in 2015, followed by exactly none in 2016.

5. October 14, 2017: Illinois away, 35-24.

6. October 21, 2017: Purdue at home, 14-12. First back-to-back Big 10 wins.

7. November 4, 2017: Maryland at home, 31-24. Three in 2017, but none in 2018, and none in 2019.

8. October 24, 2020: Michigan State away, 38-27. This was the COVID season.

9. November 28, 2020: Purdue away, 37-30.

10. December 12, 2020: Maryland away, 27-24 in overtime.

11. October 30, 2021: Illinois away, 20-14.

12. November 13, 2021: Indiana away, 38-3.

13. October 22, 2022: Indiana away, 24-17.

14. October 14, 2023: Michigan State at home, 27-24.

15. October 21, 2023: Indiana away, 31-14. That season, Rutgers beat both Indiana and Miami, the latter in a bowl game.

16. September 27, 2024: Washington at home, 21-18. This was the 1st year that the Big 10 had taken in 4 former Pac-12 teams. It only helped Rutgers a little that season.

17. November 9, 2024: Minnesota at home, 26-19.

18. November 16, 2024: Maryland away, 31-17.

19. November 30, 2024: Michigan State away, 41-14.

20. October 25, 2025: Purdue away, 27-24.

21. November 8, 2025: Maryland at home, 35-20.

That's it. 21 conference wins in 12 seasons.

Or, to put it another away: Against Maryland, who joined the Big 10 at the same time, 5; against everybody else, 16. Against Maryland and Indiana, 10; against everybody else, 11.

Against the classic Big Ten, 15, 5 of those against Indiana. Against 1993-2023 admittees Penn State and Nebraska, none. Against Michigan, 1. Against Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Northwestern, none. Against Ohio State, that might be expected. The only excuse for not beating the other three, especially Northwestern, is Divisional play: Those teams are usually in another division, divided among geographical lines.

Of those 21 wins, 8 were by a field goal or less, and 13 were by a touchdown or less. None was over a team ranked in the national Top 25. Oddly, only 8 were at home. They actually do better on the road.

Can somebody explain to me why it was a good idea for Rutgers to join the Big 10?