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Winnability rankings: Evaluating Northwestern’s 2022 schedule from most to least difficult

The heart of the schedule looks especially daunting.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: OCT 30 Minnesota at Northwestern Photo by Daniel Bartel/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Northwestern football kicks off its season in less than two weeks, which means it's time for our staff to rank each of the 12 games on NU's 2022 schedule by difficulty. 1 means hardest, 12 means easiest.

Ohio State was unsurprisingly the unanimous choice as the Wildcats’ toughest opponent, while the matchups against Southern Illinois and Miami-Ohio were ranked as the easiest games to win.

2022 Winnability Rankings

Matchup Composite Average Sarah Effress Bradley Locker John Olsen Gavin Dorsey Jack Izzo Sam Richardson Ben Chasen Iggy Dowling Jason Boue Jake Mozarsky John Ferrara Brendan Preisman
Matchup Composite Average Sarah Effress Bradley Locker John Olsen Gavin Dorsey Jack Izzo Sam Richardson Ben Chasen Iggy Dowling Jason Boue Jake Mozarsky John Ferrara Brendan Preisman
Nebraska 8/27 (Dublin, Ireland) 6 6.75 8 5 6 8 7 8 9 8 5 6 7 4
Duke 9/10 10 10.42 11 11 10 10 10 11 12 10 10 10 10 10
Southern Illinois 9/17 12 11.67 10 12 12 12 12 12 10 12 12 12 12 12
Miami OH 9/24 11 10.92 12 10 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 11 11 11
@ Penn State 10/1 3 2.83 2 3 3 3 2 4 5 2 3 3 2 2
Wisconsin 10/8 2 2.42 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 3 3
@ Maryland 10/22 8 7.33 5 9 8 5 9 7 8 7 9 8 6 7
@ Iowa 10/29 5 5.17 6 7 5 6 5 3 4 5 8 4 4 5
Ohio State 11/5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
@ Minnesota 11/12 4 4.33 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 5 5 6
@ Purdue 11/19 6 6.75 7 6 7 7 6 6 6 6 7 7 8 8
Illinois 11/26 9 8.5 9 8 9 9 8 9 7 9 7 9 9 9

Here's the composite list:

12: Southern Illinois

11: Miami (OH)

10: Duke

9: Illinois

8: @Maryland

T-6: Nebraska (Dublin, Ireland) and @Purdue

5: @Iowa

4: @Minnesota

3: @Penn State

2: Wisconsin

1: Ohio State

You can check out each writer's reasoning behind their picks later this week. Until then, drop your own lists in the comments down below!