Both 247 and Action have Northwestern playing Kansas in the Phoenix Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Assuming that that becomes our destination there is another team that could well be our opponent there if they become bowl eligible tomorrow. That is BYU whose fan base is legion in the closer West and Southwest States to include Arizona. It would basically be a home game for BYU and certainly attractive to a bowl committee seeking to fill seats.

Today Nebraska was eliminated from bowl contention. If Wisconsin can defeat Minnesota tomorrow and Northwestern holds off Illinois the Cats are assured of not going to Detroit with Phoenix becoming the most likely landing spot. Even if Illinois becomes bowl eligible at least two sites (247 and Action) see Northwestern going to Phoenix.

So now returning to the question at hand, what is the likelihood of Northwestern's opponent being BYU?

Standing at 5-6, BYU needs to beat #21 Oklahoma State to get a bowl invite to one of the contracted Big 12 Bowls which include Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix. Last week BYU played #13 Oklahoma with a one score heartbreaking loss at 31-24. If against lesser Oklahoma state they can make up the difference for that one score loss we could well see BYU as our opponent in Phoenix.

Just like the Wildcats are not being predicted by practically anybody to beat Illinois tomorrow, their feline counterpart, the Cougars, are underdogs. One of the betting sites has the Oklahoma Cowboys scoring 37 and the BYU Cougars being held to 17. It is a home game for Oklahoma State where they are 5-1 at home and a road game for BYU which is 1-4 on the road.

So as to whether the Wildcats will be playing the Cougars in Phoenix on December 26th, it looks like it comes down to whether tomorrow is upset Saturday in Champaign and Stillwater.

While Northwestern was out retaking the Hat, four of its commits played in their state semifinal games. Two advanced, read about how each of the four did in this week’s roundup.

While Northwestern was out retaking the Hat, four of its commits played in their state semifinal games. Two advanced, read about how each of the four did in this week’s roundup.

He guided the program through a tumultuous stretch. Made the right hire making Braun the intern when a lot of people wanted him to look outside the program.

Assuming NU has about a month until any bowl game they might play, what are the chances of getting some players back and who is out.
I would think Coco might be back, Who else?

Remember that NU was originally scheduled to play NMSU this season.

Since the BIG went to East and West, the West is 0-9 in championship game

When do we find out??

I was part of a Zoom call with TrueNU executive director Jacob Schmidt last night that was organized by Lake the Posts. I'm going to interview Jacob soon and write another story for WR, but here are a few of the takeaways from last night's discussion:

- TrueNU raised a total of $3.6 million. So far, they have paid more than $1 million to 200 athletes across 13 sports programs, and they still hope to support athletes all 19 sports this year. As you might imagine, fundraising took a major hit after the hazing scandal broke and Fitz was subsequently fired in July. Jacob says that fundraising has gotten significantly more difficult. He feels that while Northwestern will never compete with Michigan and Ohio State in the NIL space, they are competitive with other programs in the Big Ten West.

- TrueNU is still only working with charities at this point. NU is the only Big Ten program that only has a not-for-profit arm, as everyone else is also working with commercial organizations. TrueNU originally hoped to get a commercial arm up and running, but the events of the summer have obviously altered those plans. This doesn't mean that NU athletes can't work with private companies, however. If a private company wants to get involved with an NU athlete, they can work with the athlete and/or his agent directly, or go through INFLCR, the NIL branding organization that NU uses.

- The focus of TrueNU is still on retaining current athletes rather than using NIL to recruit. They are proud of the package they put together to retain Boo Buie for the basketball program this year. For football, they may be putting together similar packages to keep guys like AJ Henning and Anto Saka in Evanston. It's going to be tough enough rebuilding the roster after the season, no matter who is the coach, so they're going to do everything they can to keep their best players in purple.

- You haven't seen much TrueNU gear around because they want as many of the dollars they raise as possible to go to athletes. Rather than tchotchkes, they are more likely to offer top donors access to players and events. This weekend, for example, Coach Collins is hosting an event for TrueNU donors at his house, with several athletes in attendance.

- Fitz played NIL strictly by the book, as we all know. He was in favor of salaries for all players, tiered by years in the program -- lowest for freshmen, highest for seniors. However, Jacob knows that a new coach could want to organize it differently, so that may change depending on who gets the job. TrueNU likes the egalitarian concept of salaries, but they are open to different systems. In the end, they will do whatever it takes to support the program and the head coach.

With the end of B1G divisions and the begining of the 12 team playoff the spectre of 3 Skunk Bear vs.Horse Chestnuts contests in a year becomes a sobering reality.

With OSU losing today I think it goes to Braun.

Harbaugh shouldn’t be eligible obviously.

Ferentz worked his Iowa magic to another 10 win season scoring 10 points per game. I don’t know that it was spectacular I. The grand scheme of what he’s built at Iowa.

There is nobody else but Braun, who led the biggest one year turnaround in FBS and finished second in his division just a half game and 3 points from being division champ.

What does that do to the bowl picture?

We would be an 8 win team with a negative point differential. That's gotta be extremely rare, at least at P5. Our 2015 team won 10 with a barely positive differential.

I could see like a MAC team absorbing 3 non con beatings then winning 8 conf games.

Just a statistical oddity

A lot of us do this for the CAT's games, but some still don't bother.

Once you do it though you're not likely to ever go back to the TV announcers again. The difference is like night and day.

It's really pretty simple and takes only minute to do. Here's how:

I haven’t followed the Game Thread for years; was wondering if it is possible to pull out all of @TheC comments and create his own thread? I’m guessing he was close to max meltdown mode today. Would be great to see. Thx

Now that we’re not blinded by history and good vibes and ‘Go Cats’ and a 25-year relationship and a name in the rafters, geez, Fitz had built a program that had turned to complete garbage.

Awful line play. Four senior starters who couldn’t protect another transfer quarterback because the program can never get any out of high school. A DLine of castoffs and walkons — high effort but limited. Talented back seven defensively, but it doesn’t matter because the game is won on the line. And an offense totally devoid of playmakers — our great hope is a dude who managed 400 scrimmage yards in three seasons at Michigan.

The staff has an unaccountable OC and an unaccountable OLine coach and those playmakers are so weak because of a decade of an unaccountable WR coach.

Pat Fitzgerald built a program to respectability on Mike Hankwitz’s broad shoulders, and he lucked out with Thorson and JJTBC.

Watching this club will subject us all only to misery.

We’re gonna party like it’s 1999 (3-8). Nah, 1989 (0-11)? Actually, probably 1979 (1-10).

Gross.

LOVE IT!
We got our Hat back!
Go Cats!!

NU played a game where both teams scored 40+ points and the final margin was 7 points or fewer:

11/15/2014 NU 43 - ND 40 (OT)
9/1/2012 NU 42 - Syracuse 41
10/13/2007 NU 49 - Minnesota 48 (2OT)
10/6/2007 NU 48 - MSU 41 (OT)
10/8/2005 NU 51 - Wisconsin 48

This seems like a solid hire for MSU.

Northwestern (6-5, 4-4 Big Ten) hits the road to play at Illinois (5-6, 3-5 Big Ten) in the battle for the Hat at 2:30 p.m. The game will air on BTN.

Illinois leads the Land of Lincoln series 57-54-5 but, while Northwestern has lost the last two by wide margins, the Wildcats have won seven of the last 10.

NU has already secured their bowl eligibility, for Illinois this is win or go home. Stadium clock projects a 2:45 pm kick

Check out @lou v’s question and answer article with Richie Schnyderite of TheKnightReport.com ahead of the Rutgers game this Sunday.

The Cats locked up bowl eligibility with the bendiest of bend-don't-break defenses last week and an offense that came through to beat the Boilers.

This week, NU faces in-state rival Illinois with its best chance in three years to return the Land of Lincoln trophy to its home in Evanston. Illinois is also still playing for bowl eligibility, so there should be no lack of motivation on either side of the ball.

NU's defense should keep the score low, but the offense has been showing enough spark, particularly with the return of QB Ben Bryant in the last two weeks, to finish ahead of the Illini.

NU 24
UI 17

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways after the shootout in Champaign.

Just awful.
Both teams throw picks in a tie game inside of two minutes.

Matt Ruhle is Scott Frost, but with no previous ties to the program.

I don’t see this new format lasting all that long for this reason. Rematches in these kind of games absolutely suck.