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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!
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