The Northwestern University football team will play the East Division champion Ohio State for the Big Ten championship at 7 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis, Ind.. Northwestern was only 8-4 overall, yet, the Wildcats were 8-1 in the Big 10 West and finished three games in front in the Big Ten West Division standings, ahead of Wisconsin and Purdue.
Just like Northwestern, the Northern Illinois University Huskies wrapped up a berth in the Mid-American Conference championship game early. Unlike Northwestern, Northern Illinois didn’t answer the challenge!
Entering its final two Mid-American Conference games, Northern Illinois had clinched playing in the MAC Championship Game at 6 p.m. Friday in Detroit against East champion Buffalo.
With a championship berth in hand, Northwestern still took the measure of Minnesota and Illinois in Big Ten games to close out the regular season. In virtually the same situation, Northern Illinois dropped MAC games to Miami of Ohio and to Western Michigan to finish its regular-season schedule.
Northern Illinois, 7-5 and 6-2, will play Buffalo, 10-2 and 7-1 at Ford Field in Detroit. Win or lose, the Huskies know they will be in a bowl game because the two teams in the MAC championship game are assured of bowl berths.
For its part, Ohio State, 11-1 and 8-1, ended up sharing Big Ten East honors with Michigan. Still, Northwestern likely will have to come up with a monster production to stay with the Buckeyes Saturday.
Northwestern defeated visiting Illinois 24-16 Saturday, Nov. 24. Ahead by 18 points at one point, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald inserted a few reserves in the fourth quarter and the Illini clawed their way back to within eight points.
It’s a rare team that can go 0-3 in non-conference action, especially a Big Ten team, then win a divisional championship with room to spare such as did Northwestern.
After Northwestern scored to lead 7-0 in the first quarter, Illinois answered with a field goal late in the first quarter. The field goal by Illinois’ Chase McLaughlin broke a streak of 70 straight points by the opposition, fed by the prior week’s 63-0 loss to Iowa.
Illinois, 4-8 and 2-7, trailed 21-6 at halftime. Limiting Northwestern to a lone field goal in the second half, the Illini worked their way back into the game and had fighting prospects of an upset until a pass by Illinois quarterback AJ Bush was picked off with 3:34 left in the fourth quarter.