Rutgers Yankee Stadium

Rutgers could play a regular season football game at Yankee Stadium in the future. (Aristide Economopoulos | The Star-Ledger)

NEW YORK -- Chris Ash was at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night to throw out the first pitch. The Rutgers football coach could return to the Bronx in the future with his team to play a game, according to athletic director Pat Hobbs.

"(The Yankees) want to work more closely with us," Hobbs said before throwing out the first pitch alongside Ash on Tuesday. "We want to look at maybe bringing a game here and announcing that sometime down the road. I guess the Yankees see Rutgers is starting to move forward and is a good story so they want to be part of it, too."

Rutgers has played three games at the new Yankee Stadium: a 2011 regular season "road" game against Army, the 2011 Pinstripe Bowl against Iowa State and the 2013 Pinstripe Bowl against Notre Dame. The Scarlet Knights' game against Army last season initially was scheduled for Yankee Stadium, but was moved to Michie Stadium.

Big Ten Network president Mark Silverman speculated in 2014 about the possibility of moving a Rutgers game against Penn State or Maryland to Yankee Stadium. Former Rutgers coach Kyle Flood was open to playing a home game at Yankee Stadium under the right circumstances.

New Rutgers coach Chris Ash is intrigued by the possibility of playing a game at Yankee Stadium.

"They kind of explained the configuration of the stadium for a football game and it looked like it would be a really neat set-up," Ash said. "It looks like from the suite anyway, if you were in cold weather in the fall or in December, that would be a pretty good place to watch a game."

Rutgers fans voiced strong opposition to moving a home game to Yankee Stadium when the topic surfaced two years ago. Players have criticized the playing surface at the stadium, as the turf tends to tear up and become slippery.

Hobbs didn't mention any specific potential opponent for a Yankee Stadium game.

"We'll work on it and hopefully we can work that out," Hobbs said. "It would be great."

Playing a game at Yankee Stadium would help build a partnership with the Yankees that Hobbs is looking to develop.

"There are a tremendous amount of Rutgers alums who work here in the city, so it's really important," Hobbs said. "It's important for our relationship if we can be with an iconic organization like the Yankees. They have a lot of the history that we would like to start building at Rutgers."

Dan Duggan may be reached at dduggan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DDuggan21. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.