Sports

Gut check for Rutgers

The perfect storm for Rutgers football, one that has been gathering force for almost a decade, could arrive today.

* The expansion of Rutgers Stadium, now a 55,000-seat state-of-the-art facility, will be baptized in the blood and sweat of the Scarlet Knights and Cincinnati Bearcats.

* The winner will have a huge advantage in the wide-open race for the Big East title and its guaranteed BCS bowl game.

* And on Labor Day, a national television audience will be watching as part of a doubleheader with Miami at Florida State.

Now all Rutgers has to do is show the nation that it is a top-25 program, from coaches to players to facilities.

“I guess student tickets went on sale and in one day they were all gone,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. “That to me is a long way from where we were when we got here nine years ago.”

Nine years ago there was a 28,000-seat stadium with a scoreboard you see only with the benefit of the Hubble telescope. There was a team comprised of half FBS and half FCS talent.

ESPN, which will televise the game at 4 p.m., thought Rutgers was a college football footnote — the birthplace of college football. Nov. 11, 1869, Rutgers 6, Princeton 4 — what have you done for me lately?

Well, four straight bowls (three straight wins). Five players taken in the last NFL Draft. It’s been a long time coming, this storm.

“People want to watch winners and I think that’s a tribute to Coach Schiano,” Giants center Sean O’Hara, a Rutgers product, told The Post. “It’s a tribute to the players and to the university, the program itself.

“They’ve come a long way,” added O’Hara. “When I was at Rutgers, most of my games were at 12 o’clock, and I think as a player that’s exciting to be able to play in prime time and be on television. That’s part of the glamour of big-time college football, and I think Rutgers can be included in that statement.”

There could be other dividends for Rutgers in addition to the 1-0 start. The Scarlet Knights have five nationally televised games this season but there could be added telecasts with success.

Step one is beating Cincy, something that hasn’t happened the last three years. The Big East is desperate for rivalries and this could emerge into one.

“Before it can become a rivalry, we have to do our part,” said Schiano.

The forces are all in place. All Rutgers needs is the storm.

lenn.robbins@nypost.com