Is the Rutgers-Navy series canceled?

Big hat tip to Ascent on Scarlet Nation for catching this.

As noted on this site several months ago, Navy's 2010 media guide includes three future games with Rutgers from 2011-2013. Rutgers has already officially announced the 2011 game, as did Navy in January. Also, they seem to think the stadium is located in New Brunswick instead of Piscataway.

However, last week the Navy athletic department released football schedules for 2012 and 2013 that did not include previously scheduled games with Rutgers.

2012 Navy Football Schedule (subject to change)
Date          Opponent                Location
Sept. 1       vs. Notre Dame        Dublin, Ireland
Sept. 15     at Penn State           State College, Pa.
Sept. 22    VMI                         Annapolis, Md.
Sept. 29    San Jose State        Annapolis, Md.
Oct. 6        at Air Force               Colorado Springs, Colo.
Oct. 13      at Central Michigan    Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Oct. 20      Indiana (HC)          Annapolis, Md.
Oct. 27       at East Carolina        Greenville, N.C.
Nov. 3       Florida Atlantic       Annapolis, Md.
Nov. 10      at Troy                     Troy, Ala.
Nov. 17     Texas State            Annapolis, Md.
Dec. 8        vs. Army                 Philadelphia, Pa.

2013 Navy Football Schedule (subject to change)
Date          Opponent                Location
Sept. 7       at Indiana                Bloomington, Ind.
Sept. 14     Delaware               Annapolis, Md.
Sept. 28     at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky.
Oct. 5         Air Force                Annapolis, Md.
Oct. 12       at Duke                    Durham, N.C.
Oct. 19       at Toledo                  Toledo, Ohio
Oct. 26       Pittsburgh (HC)     Annapolis, Md.
Nov. 2         at Notre Dame         South Bend, Ind.
Nov. 9         Hawai'i                  Annapolis, Md.
Nov. 16       South Alabama     Annapolis, Md.
Nov. 23       at San Jose State     San Jose, Calif.
Dec. 14       vs. Army                Philadelphia, Pa.

Replacing games with Rutgers are VMI in 2012 and Hawai'i in 2013.

With TCU joining the Big East in 2012, not playing Navy addresses what looked to be a problem of Rutgers having too many games scheduled that season. Presumably Rutgers will add another FCS opponent to get to seven home games, and play this slate:

HOME: Army, Kent State, Connecticut, FCS, Louisville, Syracuse, TCU

ROAD: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, South Florida, Tulane, West Virginia

That is...not a good OOC schedule even if Tulane and Army improve.

With TCU joining the Big East it's close if not equivalent to the recent athletic department model of playing one BCS conference opponent on most years, which nearly every Rutgers fan despises. The main alternative would be to take a payout to play a road game somewhere, but that would require another program matching RU's home revenue like the Meadowlands did in buying last year's Army game. That does not seem likely with power conference programs happy to buy easy wins against mid-majors for smaller payouts, but you never know for sure.

It remains to be seen who Rutgers will schedule in 2013 and 2014. NationalChamps.net still lists a Rutgers/Navy game in 2014, meaning that it probably was announced at some point. Another lingering unanswered question concerns the status of any future games with Army (last year the Pinstripe Bowl website announced a RU/Army game in 2015 at Yankee Stadium, which Jason Baum later confirmed.) I missed this at the time, but Army beatwriter Sal Interdonato posted several future Army schedules two months ago. That report further confirms the 2015 game, but Army is already full-up for 2013, while their schedule remains incomplete in 2014.

Rutgers still needs to add two home out of conference games in 2014, with one likely to come from the FCS ranks if recent history is any indication. Hey, MAC, do any of you want to make a quick $850k?