Big Ten Football 2015: Ranking the schedules
By Mark Rogers
Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
12. Northwestern Wildcats
Credit Northwestern with scheduling difficult non-conference games against similar institutions. This strategy makes sense and may pay dividends in recruiting.
The Wildcats open at home vs Stanford. The Cardinal is coming off a down year at 8-5, but returns much of the Pac 12’s #1 ranked defense and Senior quarterback Kevin Hogan. The Cardinal lost most of those five games in excruciating fashion and gave a 5-3 Big Ten team a beating in the Foster Farms Bowl.
After a home date with Eastern Illinois, the Wildcats travel to Duke. David Cutcliffe has brought stability, talent and confidence to a once down-trodden program. Duke is 19-8 the past two years including a trip to the 2013 ACC Championship Game.
Northwestern Big Ten opener vs Minnesota begins a formidable stretch of five games against the Gophers, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska and Penn State. Despite the two tough out of conference games, the Wildcats schedule fails to move any higher in the ranks due to non-division games vs Penn State and Michigan. The Nittany Lions and Wolverines were only a combined 5-11 in conference last year, but are also probably the two biggest wild cards in the Big Ten.
Next: Wisconsin