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Winnability rankings: Evaluating the easiest and hardest games on Northwestern football’s 2023 schedule

As you may have figured, the three preseason top-25 opponents are ranked as some of the Wildcats’ toughest games.

By Inside NU Archives
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Big Ten Football Media Days Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

With all of the scandals and events that have rocked Evanston, Illinois in the last six weeks, it can be hard to even fathom the idea of playing a football game. At the same time, Northwestern football is attempting to move forward under the coaching of interim man David Braun, with its season opener at Rutgers just 20 days away.

As is annual tradition, we asked our staff writers to rank the Wildcats’ games on a scale of easiest to hardest matchups, with 12 representing the easiest end of the scale. All agreed that NU’s matchup with Howard is its most favorable, but its date with No. 7 Penn State is its most daunting. Below are their complete rankings.

2023 Northwestern Football Winnability Rankings

Game Composite Average Iggy Dowling Bradley Locker David Gold John Ferrara Ethan Segall Leo Tesler Sophia Vlahakis Ryan Cole Brendan Preisman
Game Composite Average Iggy Dowling Bradley Locker David Gold John Ferrara Ethan Segall Leo Tesler Sophia Vlahakis Ryan Cole Brendan Preisman
at Rutgers 10 10.11 10 10 11 11 9 10 10 10 10
vs. UTEP 11 10.78 11 11 10 10 11 11 11 11 11
at Duke 3 2.78 3 2 3 2 2 2 3 4 4
vs. Minnesota 4 4 5 4 4 3 4 3 5 5 3
vs. Penn State 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
vs. Howard 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
at Nebraska 8 8.22 9 8 7 6 10 9 8 9 8
vs. Maryland 6 5.78 7 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6
vs. Iowa 5 5.11 4 7 6 7 5 5 4 3 5
at Wisconsin 2 2.67 2 3 2 4 3 4 2 2 2
vs. Purdue 9 8.56 8 9 9 9 8 8 9 8 9
at Illinois 7 6.89 6 6 8 7 7 7 7 7 7

Composite Winnability Rankings (Hardest to Easiest)

  1. vs. No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions (Sept. 30)
  2. at No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers (Nov. 21)
  3. at Duke Blue Devils (Sept. 16)
  4. vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers (Sept. 23)
  5. vs. No. 25 Iowa Hawkeyes (Nov. 4 at Wrigley Field)
  6. vs. Maryland Terrapins (Oct. 28)
  7. at Illinois Fighting Illini (Nov. 25)
  8. at Nebraska Cornhuskers (Oct. 21)
  9. vs. Purdue Boilermakers (Nov. 18)
  10. at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Sept. 3)
  11. vs. UTEP Miners (Sept. 9)
  12. vs. Howard Bison (Oct. 7)

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