Just like we all expected.
Penn State’s final game of the season will mean something.
It’s just not a shot at an undefeated season and it’s not a spot in the College Football Playoff.
No, what Penn State is playing for is not even remotely close to any of those things.
When Penn State suits up for the final time this regular season, it will be looking for a berth in a bowl game, still needing the sixth win to do so as it takes on Rutgers Saturday afternoon in Piscataway.
It’s just another notch in the awkward and weird season that has been 2025.
This was supposed to be a season of big dreams for Penn State and for a fanbase hungry for a national championship for the first time in 39 years.
After a 0-3 start in conference play and a fired coach, it will have to keep waiting at least 40 to find it.
This season has gone unlike so many had expected it would. The non-conference portion of the season was an awkward journey through early September – as a team that was supposed to steamroll its opponents both did and did not. Never once did this team find its groove through early September and by the time it mattered in late September in the midst of a White Out and a week later in sunny California, the only groove to be found was in the ground in the wake of the train wreck of this season.
By the time James Franklin was fired, the weird grip of this season had already taken over.
That weirdness doesn’t even include the losses to Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana – of which had a uniquely bizarre tone – after the fact.
It even recently took a somewhat messy turn when the interim coach, Terry Smith, wore a button that may have effectively disqualified him from taking the full-time job. That fate of course remains to be seen in the coming days – potentially hours – as the coaching search wraps up.
And of course, those have famously never taken a weird turn ever.
But consider for a moment that Penn State now must beat Rutgers for bowl eligibility in the 12th game of the season.
That was not on the radar back in August. It’s weird that Penn State and Rutgers playing each other really means something or anything.
Since two schools picked up play once again, no game against the Scarlet Knights has mattered more – if going to a bowl as a 6-6 team really matters for what the expectations were for Penn State.
Even after Penn State and Rutgers rekindled their games back in 2014 and Gary Nova kept throwing interceptions that night, no Penn State-Rutgers game has had higher stakes – if you can correctly apply “higher” there. Sure, a Rutgers win on that night may have changed some trajectories for both programs. But it likely would have worked itself out as it’s almost always done – in favor of Penn State.
Now in 2025, Penn State and Rutgers effectively play a de facto elimination game for a spot in a bowl, and while Rutgers – who has finished 6-6 each of the last two seasons – is generally in this spot, Penn State is not.
A game of this meaning — which may not be that deep or important in the grand scheme of the full 2025 college football season — just feels weird for Penn State and Rutgers because it almost never happens. Never once has Penn State-Rutgers meant this much which isn’t much at all.
Penn State has to win and not in a seeding or perfect season way. It’s got to win to go to a bowl that probably has some weird sponsor and it’s weird to think that winning that game would even matter. It certainly would feel awkward.
But that’s the theme of this season. It’s weird that Saturday’s game matters and it’s weird how this season has unfolded.
Even if that feels weird to say.
vs 
Time: 3:30 p.m.
TV: BTN
Announcers: Jeff Levering, Jake Butt, Brooke Fletcher
Radio: Penn State Sports Network
Announcers: Steve Jones, Jack Ham, Brian Tripp
