Rutgers will play a home-and-home series against former Big East counterpart Syracuse during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, a person with knowledge of the agreement told NJ Advance Media.

The Orange are being added to the schedule after Rutgers informed UCLA last week it was canceling the previously-scheduled home-and-home meetings between the two schools during the same seasons. Rutgers will pay out a $500,000 cancellation fee within 30 days to get out of the UCLA series, a source confirmed. The cancellation was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Rutgers will host Syracuse in 2020 and play at the Carrier Dome in 2021. The Scarlet Knights are adding a home game to the 2020 schedule, since they were originally scheduled to play UCLA at the Rose Bowl that year, and subtracting a home game from the 2021 slate, when they were set to host the Bruins in Piscataway.

Rutgers WRs coach leaves for job at Maryland

The UCLA home-and-home was agreed to under former coach Greg Schiano was Rutgers' head coach. Current coach Chris Ash has placed an emphasis on playing regional non-conference rivals in order to energize fan turnout and excitement, particularly at home games. Syracuse continues that trend. The Scarlet Knights struggled with a home-and-home against another Pac-12 program, Washington, in the 2016-17 season openers.

In addition to Syracuse, Rutgers has series with old conference rivals Boston College, Temple and Virginia Tech already scheduled for future seasons.

Syracuse has a 30-12-1 lead on Rutgers in the all-time series. The teams last met in the 2012 season, Rutgers' last as a Big East member before its one-year stopover in the American Athletic Conference prior to joining the Big Ten.

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