It was a Saturday in which everything fell into place for the Northwestern University Wildcats’ football team.
Northwestern was victorious over Iowa, 14-10, and Wisconsin and Purdue, the Wildcats’ nearest pursuers each fell to defeat, Northwestern locked up first place in the West Division and a spot in the Big Ten championship game Saturday, Dec. 1 in Indianapolis, Ind.. It will be the Wildcats’ first Big Ten championship game.
The Wildcats are 6-1 in the Big Ten and 6-4 overall. The teams that have knocked off the Wildcats, include: Notre Dame, 10-0; Michigan, 9-1; Duke, 7-3; and Akron, 4-5. That’s a combined record of 30-9 for the four. Notre Dame and Michigan are in the top four of the polls.
Six victories qualifies teams for bowl berths. The Big Ten has seven teams with six or more victories: Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin. Iowa, and Northwestern.
Entering the penultimate weekend of Big Ten play Saturday, 12 of the Conference’s 14 teams have shots at six victories and a potential bowl invitation. Only Nebraska, 3-7, and Rutgers, 1-9, have no bowl considerations.
Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck sacked his defensive coordinator after his Gophers were dismantled, 55-31, by Illinois two weeks ago. Saturday, the defensively-reconstituted Gophers, 5-5 and 2-5, defeated Purdue, 41-10. Northwestern will be at Minnesota at 11 a.m. Saturday.
• Northern Illinois, 7-3 and 6-0 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), made it six consecutive victories after beating Toledo, 38-15, Wednesday, Nov. 14. The Huskies were set to play host Miami, Ohio Wednesday at 7 p.m.. A Northern Illinois victory would send the team into the MAC championship game November 30 in Detroit.
The Miami-Northern Illinois game is in its first year of playing for the Mallory Cup, named for the late Bill Mallory, once head coach of each school. He led both schools to Mid-American Conference championships. He died May 25.