David Braun’s Northwestern Wildcats are coming off a solid 7-6 season in 2025 and have put together an encouraging offseason. The Wildcats made several key additions, most notably landing transfer quarterback Aidan Chiles from Michigan State and running back Gavin Sawchuk from Florida State. They also made some major upgrades to the coaching staff, hiring Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator and bringing in Jerry Neuheisel as quarterbacks coach. These moves were made in hopes of making a significant boost on the offensive side of the ball to complement what has been a consistently solid defense under Braun.
In addition, Northwestern is looking forward to the debut of its new state-of-the-art stadium, which is expected to open at some point during the 2026 season. Between the roster additions, coaching upgrades, and the excitement with the new stadium, Wildcat fans have plenty to look forward to in 2026.
That said, next season will be anything but easy. The Big Ten released its 2026 schedule this past week, and Northwestern may have come away as the biggest loser in the conference as they will face a brutal slate next season.
Northwestern’s 2026 schedule is as follows:
- Week 1: South Dakota State (Sept 5)
- Week 2: BYE
- Week 3: Colorado (Sept 19)
- Week 4: at Indiana (Sept 26)
- Week 5: Penn State (Oct 3)
- Week 6: Ball State (Oct 10)
- Week 7: at Michigan State (Oct 17)
- Week 8: Rutgers (Oct 24)
- Week 9: at Oregon (Oct 31)
- Week 10: Iowa (Nov 7)
- Week 11: at Ohio State (Nov 14)
- Week 12: at Minnesota (Nov 21)
- Week 13: Illinois (Nov 28)
While the Wildcats’ opponents were already known, they were done no favors in terms of the setup and order of the schedule. Northwestern gets its bye in Week 2 then will have to play 11 games in 11 weeks to close the season, 10 of which are against power-conference opponents. Of their 12 total opponents, seven finished with winning records in 2025, including three that reached at least the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The Wildcats will open Big Ten play on the road against the defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers.
Looking specifically at conference play, Northwestern got a tough draw under the Big Ten’s newer scheduling model. The Wildcats will face the top three teams from the league a year ago (Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon) who will all likely be right back near the top of the conference in 2026. Two of those matchups will come within a three-week span during a brutal stretch in which Northwestern will out west to face Oregon, return home to take on Iowa, and then head back on the road to play Ohio State. They’ll also see a new-look Penn State team with Matt Campbell, an Iowa program they haven’t beaten since 2020, and go on the road to face former longtime Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who will certainly be motivated to get a win against his alma mater.
The non-conference is far from the cupcake ones we now see from many power-conference programs. Northwestern opens the season against South Dakota State who is one of the premier FCS programs in the country, in a game that is a true lose-lose scenario. The Wildcats will also take on Colorado who will be all-in this season after an embarrassing 2025 campaign under head coach Deion Sanders.
It’s still early with a lot of time before the 2026 season kicks off, but based on the schedule release alone, Northwestern’s looks like one of the toughest in the country. At the moment, I’d say the Wildcats have maybe one easy win on the slate and multiple games that could be categorized as for-sure losses.