If there's one thing that's been a stable of the Northwestern Wildcats football program under head coach Pat Fitzgerald, it's that his team plays a variety of opponents from different conferences each season. And that tradition will continue as the school announced future opponents for upcoming schedules this week.
"Chicago's Big Ten Team" as they like to be called announced four future home games and two future road games. With the major expansion that the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences have undertaken over the last few years, Big Ten Conference teams are limited to just three non-conference games per season now. This creates scheduling challenges for most of the conference but Northwestern has always managed to avoid that. The Wildcats tend to get creative when it comes to non-conference scheduling.
One of those future opponents will be the Rice Owls of Conference USA. Northwestern announced a two-game series with Rice which will be played on the Owls home turf in Houston, Texas on Sept. 8th 2029, then switch to Ryan Field on Sept. 6th 2031. The Wildcats have played Rice seven times previously with the Owls holding a 4-3 all-time series lead. Northwestern won the last meeting between these two schools back in 2011.
NU will also renew hostilities with the Tulane Green Wave (who's currently in the American Athletic Conference), a school that they haven't played since 1956. The Green Wave holds a 3-1 all-time series lead and they'll make the trip to Evanston on Sept. 12th 2020, with the Wildcats returning the favor on Aug. 30th 2025; the season opener for that year.
In 2020, the Wildcats will re-familiarize themselves with the Central Michigan Chippewas from the Mid-American Conference who will visit Ryan Field on Sept. 19th of that year. Northwestern won the first meeting with CMU back in 2010. Then on Sept. 12th of 2026, Northwestern will begin a new chapter in the history of the program. On that day South Dakota State of the Football Championship Subdivision's Missouri Valley Football Conference will come to Ryan Field for the first ever meeting between these two teams. The Jackrabbits are no stranger to the Big Ten however as they are 0-3 against the conference since 2009.
On Pat Fitzgerald's watch the Wildcats are 9-2 vs the FCS, 10-2 against the MAC, unbeaten against C-USA (2-0), but they have yet to play against an AAC school. And while we still have a long way before these games are played, the Wildcats recent success combined with last month's opening of their new practice facility, Fitzgerald should still be on the sidelines by the time these games roll around barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The former Wildcats linebacker has taken this program to new heights since taking over for the late Randy Walker in 2006. They've moved up into the Top-60 in the recruiting rankings with their last couple of classes, they've upgraded their facilities and play a good mixture of teams from both big and small conferences.
The 43-year-old Fitzgerald is the most successful head coach in the history of Wildcats football with an 87-65 record, three 10-win seasons and eight bowl game appearances (3-5 record). NU will begin the 2018 season on Aug. 30th with a road game at Purdue.
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