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No. 19 Northwestern vs. Wisconsin: Game info, how to watch, TV, preview, and more

It's just the second game of the season, but Northwestern kinda sorta needs a win to take its division. Can the Wildcats bounce back from a tough loss to OSU on the road at Camp Randall?

By Rodger Sherman
Jonathan Daniel

It's weird, I've said it a few times: this game is just as important as last week's in that if Northwestern loses, they're 0-2 in conference and might not win the Big Ten, but that game at Ohio State (under the lights, College GameDay, big opportunity to beat the No. 4 team in the nation) got a million trillion times more hype. NU's gotta beat Wisconsin, and they play them today.

This is kind of a de facto Big Ten title elimination game: whichever team wins still has a chance to go to Indianapolis, whichever team doesn't is sort of in trouble. Here's all the stuff you need to know about Northwestern playing Wisconsin!

Game time: 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 2:30 p.m. Evanston/Madison time

TV: ABC/ESPN2 (coverage map)

Announcers: Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman, Shannon Spake

Radio: WGN 720 (Dave Eanet, Ted Albrecht, Sam Valenzisi)

Kickoff forecast: 72 degrees, thunderstorms, 70 percent chance of precipitation

Odds: Ohio State -10.5, -380

Over/under: 67 degrees, partly cloudy, 10 percent chance of precipitation

Rankings (AP/USA Today): Northwestern, 19/18, Wisconsin, unranked

What this means to each team

Northwestern: The Cats played Ohio State close last week, but it was still an L. Northwestern doesn't just get the unfortunate draw of Ohio State and Wisconsin -- the only Legends Division contender that has to do so -- they have to play both in the first two weeks of the season. The Wildcats proved they were a good team by taking the Big Ten's best to the wire last week, but they need a W to avoid an 0-2 conference start that good ruin the season for the best NU team in a long time. Unfortunately, winning at Camp Randall is tough.

Wisconsin: Like NU, the Badgers are 0-2 in conference. Like Northwestern, they still want to win the Big Ten. They'll have to win out and hope Ohio State screws up along the way.

Wisconsin blog: Bucky's 5th Quarter

Northwestern injury report: OUT: Sean McEvilly, Jaylen Prater

Northwestern depth chart

Important linxxxx

Go Cats and stuff

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