Rutgers is going to the College Football Playoff.

Kind of.

Pictures and posts about Rutgers football billboards in Florida and Texas have appeared on social media in recent weeks, leaving many stumped. Were they a recruiting ploy? Some sort of glitch or mistake? Or something else.

The athletics department has enjoyed the mystery and speculation - that was all part of the plan - but here’s the answer: The billboards are part of Rutgers' kickoff for next year’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first college football game with Princeton. They were specifically placed in the three cities that will host CFP games - Dallas for the Cotton Bowl, Miami for the Orange Bowl and Santa Clara, California, for the national championship game - in order to make a “brand statement” in spots the national college football media and thousands of fans will be descending upon.

Rutgers' goal? To get people at the three playoff games talking about the Scarlet Knights on social media and spreading the program’s brand. And if that means a lot of “What the hell is Rutgers doing with a billboard here?” tweets, so be it.

“The way we’re going to measure it is did we get any media attention out of it? If we do, we’re aware that some of it might come with a little tone of snark,” Rutgers assistant athletic director of marketing Robert Roselli told NJ Advance Media. "But at the end of the day, if they’re talking about Rutgers football, it’s a win for us.”

The billboards are static, Roselli said, and were strategically placed in spots where visiting fans and media would see them. They were placed on the route from a major area airport to either the media hotel or the stadium where that city’s game will be played.

The billboards in Dallas and Miami have been up for a few weeks and are expected to come down on New Year’s Eve, two days after the semifinal games. The Santa Clara billboard was going up Thursday and will come down on Jan. 9, two days after the national title game.

“The idea was we needed to come up with a way to essentially crash the parties of the College Football Playoff from a brand standpoint," Roselli said. “The whole college football world is honing in on those three cities as we get ready for the semifinals and the championship.

“Billboards are really a statement. It’s in your face, it’s on a road, you can’t miss it. We were mindful of our audience. We know we’re not promoting Rutgers football to residents of Dallas or Miami or Santa Clara. We’re trying to put something in front of the eyes of the national college football media and where they’ll be.”

Rutgers wanted to make a creative splash with the billboards, with the idea the campaign would start organically through social media before the purpose was revealed. Roselli said the school considered ads with no school branding in order to generate more intrigue, but ultimately decided to include the block R logo and helmet.

“We wanted to have brand recognition," Andrew Kulihin, Rutgers athletics' lead designer, told NJ Advance Media. “We wanted to heighten the perception our brand. We wanted something that was clean.”

Once the first billboards went up, Roselli said he kept refreshing Twitter, waiting for the first mention. That came late in the afternoon Dec. 5.

Why is there a Rutgers football billboard on Pembroke Road & 441, It's different from when they had the billboard on 95 a few years ago but what a random section to put that sign — Eric Lauzin (@Lauzin) December 5, 2018

There have been more tweets since then, as well as mentions from Reddit, Yahoo and Saturday Tradition. Several former Rutgers players in the NFL have also amplified the ads on their social media channels. Roselli said he’s pleased with the traction the ads have gotten so far, but that Rutgers won’t know how successful the project is until it gets through the three games and its target audience moves in and out of the cities.

“We wanted to generate conversation,” Roselli said. “Those are outlets and channels that wouldn’t be talking about Rutgers football at this time of year without something like this.”

James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@JamesKratch. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.