American college football season
The 2015 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University during the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season . It was Pat Fitzgerald 's tenth season as the team's head coach. The Wildcats home games were played at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois . They were members of the West Division of the Big Ten Conference . They finished the season 10–3, 6–2 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for second place in the West Division. They were invited to the Outback Bowl where they were defeated by Tennessee 45–6.
Northwestern announced their 2015 football schedule on June 3, 2013. The 2015 schedule consist of 7 home and 5 away games in the regular season. The Wildcats hosted Big Ten foes Iowa , Minnesota , Penn State , and Purdue and travelled to Illinois , Michigan , Nebraska , and Wisconsin .[1]
The Wildcats hosted three of their four non conference games against Ball State , Eastern Illinois and Stanford . Northwestern traveled to Durham, North Carolina to face Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference on September 19.
Date Time Opponent Rank Site TV Result Attendance September 5 11:00 a.m. No. 21 Stanford * ESPN W 16–636,024 September 12 3:00 p.m. Eastern Illinois * ESPNews W 41–029,131 September 19 11:30 a.m. at Duke * No. 23 ACCN W 19–1024,127 September 26 7:00 p.m. Ball State * No. 17 BTN W 24–1930,107 October 3 11:00 a.m. Minnesota No. 16 BTN W 27–030,044 October 10 2:30 p.m. at No. 18 Michigan No. 13 BTN L 0–38110,452 October 17 11:00 a.m. No. 17 Iowa No. 20 ABC/ESPN2 L 10–4044,135 October 24 11:00 a.m. at Nebraska ESPN2 W 30–2889,493 November 7 11:00 a.m. Penn State No. 21 ESPNU W 23–2134,116 November 14 11:00 a.m. Purdue No. 18 BTN W 21–1430,003 November 21 2:30 pm at No. 25 Wisconsin No. 20 BTN W 13–775,276 November 28 2:30 pm at Illinois No. 16 ESPNU W 24–1433,514 January 1, 2016 11:00 a.m. vs. No. 23 Tennessee * No. 13 ESPN2 L 6–4553,202
Schedule Source: [2] Ranking movementsLegend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking — = Not ranked RV = Received votes Week Poll Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Final AP — RV 23 17 16 13 20 RV RV RV 24 20 17 13 12 23 Coaches — RV 24 19 17 14 21 RV RV RV 24 21 17 13 12 22 CFP Not released 21 18 20 16 14 13 Not released
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