The Rutgers Scarlet Knights have added the Norfolk State Spartans to their 2028 football schedule, according to report by NJ.com.
Rutgers will host Norfolk State at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, N.J., on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2028. The Scarlet Knights will pay the Spartans a $450,000 guarantee for the contest, per the report.
Back in December, Rutgers announced the addition of Norfolk State to its 2025 football schedule, with the game slated for Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. The guarantee for that contest, according to NJ.com, will be $425,000. Both the 2025 and 2028 contests are part of the same contract.
Norfolk State is a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Spartans are entering their first season under head coach Michael Vick, who played college ball for the Virginia Tech Hokies and also in the NFL, primarily with the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles.
With the addition of Norfolk State, Rutgers now has two non-conference opponents scheduled for the 2028 season. The Scarlet Knights are also set to host the Kent State Golden Flashes on Sept. 16.
Norfolk State now has three non-conference opponents schedule in 2028. The Spartans are slated to face the Elon Phoenix on Sept. 16 and the VMI Keydets on Sept. 30, and both contests are slated to be played at William “Dick” Price Stadium in Norfolk, Va.
Football Schedules
Norfolk St. in 2025 and 2028; Howard in 2026: Fine HBCU’s, but Rutgers should be scheduling more compelling OOC rivals. Embarrassing as an NJ resident. Get a moving-up Delaware on the schedule.
Just looking at their future non-conference schedule, it looks pretty putrid.
Maybe the difficulty of the BigTen schedule makes up for it, but still…
It would be cool for both sides if they did a long term series and maybe even eventually played a game at Delaware. Maybe two games at Rutgers and one at Delaware. This has happened before.
Schiano wouldn’t dare play any schools of quality in non-conference play. So weak!!
Don’ t expect every Big Ten teams to play a power four team.
If Rutgers were to play a power four team they should have it at East Rutherford, NJ at Met Life Stadium.
Since 2021, the year that Schiano returned as HC, Rutgers has scheduled a regular season Power-4 opponent each year (at BC, at Syracuse and H/A Va. Tech) and won all of those games. This season they will play the two schools that last season played for the MAC championship. Their OOC scheduling is not embarrassing nor of non-quality.