Northwestern vs. Wisconsin football will kick off at 11 a.m. central on ABC

Northwestern football’s next game, its Big Ten opener against perennial West division power Wisconsin on September 30, has an official start time and TV channel. The programs announced that the game will kick off at 11 a.m. central from Camp Randall Stadium and be nationally televised on ABC.

Although some fans may have been hoping for a later start time, it’s still pretty cool that this game will be available to everyone with a basic cable package across the country.

Northwestern and Wisconsin both have byes this weekend, meaning the Badgers will enter the game ranked No. 9 in the AP Top 25. They ran through non-conference play undefeated, with an average margin of victory greater than 33 points.

The Wildcats, meanwhile, looked dreadful in a blowout loss in Durham, but rebounded with an offensive explosion in a 49-7 win over Bowling Green to enter conference play 2-1. Both teams will have two weeks to prepare for a game that Northwestern really needs to win if it wants to win the West.

The last time these two programs met in Madison, Northwestern came away with a low-scoring, controversial victory on a freezing November afternoon. Before that, the Wildcats hadn’t won at Camp Randall since victories in 2000 and 1996.

Inside NU will have all the preview content you could possibly want leading up to this game, and we’ll of course bring you full game coverage from Madison two Saturdays from now.