As Rutgers steadily rises under Greg Schiano, have season ticket sales followed?

As Rutgers football steadily rises to respectability under head coach Greg Schiano for a second time, its fanbase is following suit.

With a little under a week remaining until its season opener against Ohio, the Scarlet Knights distributed a total of 24,275 season tickets as of Friday evening, a Rutgers official told NJ Advance Media. While a majority of the packages were paid (22,408), 1,867 of them (7.7%) were comped, the official said.

A 5.9% increase from last season, it marks the most season tickets distributed by the program since the 2016 season, when it distributed 28,478 season tickets. It also marks a 46.4% increase from the 2019 campaign, when season ticket sales bottomed out going into the final season of former head coach Chris Ash’s disastrous tenure.

It remains well short of the 31,168 season tickets distributed ahead of the 2015 season, which came after the Scarlet Knights finished with an 8-5 record and a Quick Lane Bowl victory in their first Big Ten season.

Schiano is set to earn $100,000 in bonuses because the program sold more than 24,000 season tickets, according to his latest contract.

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The Scarlet Knights enter the 2025 season looking to build on momentum garnered over the past two years.

They finished with identical 7-6 records in that span, marking their first back-to-back winning seasons since the 2011 and 2012 campaigns, and reached back-to-back bowl games for the first time since they reached the postseason four straight times between the 2011 and 2014 campaigns.

Rutgers finished an up-and-down 2024 season by winning three of its final four regular season games, bouncing back from a four-game losing streak that nearly derailed the campaign to set a program record for Big Ten wins in a season (4). The Scarlet Knights nearly defeated Kansas State in the Rate Bowl, but ultimately fell in a 44-41 thriller after blowing a 17-point lead.

With starting quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, a deep wide receiver room and the core of its offensive line returning, Rutgers bolstered its best offense in a decade by grabbing dynamic players in the transfer portal like wide receiver DT Sheffield (North Texas) and running back CJ Campbell (FAU).

On the other end, the Scarlet Knights bolstered their pass rush with prolific Group of Five stars Eric O’Neill (James Madison) and Bradley Weaver (Ohio) and replenished its secondary with veterans Cam Miller (Penn State), Jett Elad (UNLV) and Jacobie Henderson (Charlotte).

Schiano and his staff will look to guide the group through a difficult schedule and take another step on the Big Ten totem pole.

“(When) we came back to Rutgers — this will be our sixth season back — we were dead last and we could hardly see it from there," Schiano said at Big Ten media day. “It was a tough start, but, step-by-step, we’ve climbed our way to the middle of the league. I didn’t come back to do that. I came back to win the championship. That may sound funny to some that have followed college football, but that’s what we’re going to do. I can’t tell you when that’s going to happen, but that’s why we’re back.

“I have the staff to do it. We’re constantly getting better and better players, and we’re constantly growing as a program. Our fan base is growing. All the things that you need to climb the ladder. That’s what we do. We just come in every day and try to get a little bit better. Can’t have any backslides. Have to keep getting better and better, and eventually, you’ll get there. That’s really what we focus on.”

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Brian Fonseca may be reached at [email protected].