Howard
1-0 W2 · Cooling
Rutgers
11:00 PM · SHI Stadium

Howard (1-0) at Rutgers — no line posted yet, but the model favors Rutgers (93%).

What’s at stake

Rutgers

  • Rutgers is the program that played the first-ever college football game — November 6, 1869 vs Princeton — and whose Greg Schiano-second-era Big Ten reset answers what historic-program-resurrected looks like.

Howard

  • Howard is the prestige HBCU whose Showtime Marching Band and cultural legacy define Black excellence in Washington, D.C.—a program where reputation exceeds record but never dismisses ambition.

See this week’s biggest postseason implications ›

The series

Rutgers leads the series 6-0

6 meetings since 2006 · Rutgers has won the last 6

  • 2024Rutgers 44–7
  • 2016Rutgers 52–14
  • 2014 · neutral siteRutgers 38–25
  • 2012 · neutral siteRutgers 26–0
  • 2009 · neutral siteRutgers 45–7

Face-off

What each fanbase carries into this one.

Howard

The chip · vs the national media

The fanbase knows Showtime is globally recognized while the football team remains a footnote. Every Bison loss feels like a wound to institutional pride—the disconnect between what Howard is and what its football program achieves.

What this game touches

The credibility gap. Howard's Showtime Marching Band is globally respected, the football program is not. The 2025 season (5–7) felt like a continuation of a wound: the Bison have won just a handful of MEAC titles in the modern era, and recruiting struggles against peers who deliver on-field success alongside cultural prestige. For a program housed in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, the football field has become a secondary stage.

Rutgers

The chip · vs big brother

Rutgers fans are weary of being the Big Ten's welcome mat — the school the blue bloods schedule for a comfortable Saturday. They'll remind you who held the first game ever, and that the founder doesn't need anyone's permission to stay.

What this game touches

The founder who can't quite arrive. Rutgers spent 150 years on the sport's margins, then bought into the Big Ten in 2014 expecting the rising tide to lift it. The 2025 team went 5-7 (2-7 Big Ten) and turned down a bowl bid against Georgia Southern; Greg Schiano cleared out his defensive staff after the unit collapsed. The founder is still looking for its first real Big Ten breakthrough.

Best players

Rutgers

  • KJ Duff (WR) · 2025: 1,084 receiving yards
  • Antwan Raymond (RB) · 2025: 1,241 rushing yards
  • Jett Elad (DB) · 2025: 77 tackles

Conditions

Home-field advantage: Strong

Rutgers is 38% at home, 32% on the road since 2018 (20-32 home, 13-28 away).