Ten Questions: 8. Can Northwestern restore home-field advantage?

Eighth of ten questions that will decide Northwestern’s season

Much of the Wildcats’ success in their surprising 2023 season came at home, where they went 5-2, including a 5-1 mark in the final year of the old Ryan Field. In 2024, their efforts in both Evanston and at Wrigley Field fell flat, with an inverted 2-5 mark.

Their only home wins came against Miami (Ohio) and Eastern Illinois at Martin Stadium in Evanston. The Wildcats were 0-5 against visiting Power Four programs, with three losses in Evanston and two at Wrigley.

Northwestern has another home-schedule split this season, as the new Ryan Field continues to be rebuilt on Central Street. They have five games at the temporary lakeside Martin Stadium facility to start the year, then two more at Wrigley in November to close out their home slate.

Northwestern 2025 Home Football Schedule

TEN QUESTIONS SERIES: 1. Can Preston Stone return to form? | 2. Does Northwestern have enough depth at wide receiver? | 3. Will Anto Saka be an elite pass rusher? | 4. Can an influx of transfers boost the defense? l 5. Can Northwestern find production at tight end? | 6. Will Northwestern’s corners be better this season after losing Johnson? | 7. Can the offensive line find consistency?

Breaking the Big Ten seal

Martin Stadium has been a major success for Northwestern, putting together a temporary stadium on short notice saved the program from a two-season exodus of bouncing around Chicagoland looking for a place to play far from campus.

The sold-out crowds may not have been as packed with purple as many would have liked to see, but it has allowed the 2024 and 2025 teams to have a campus connection. And it’s been far better than most of the other options being kicked around after Ryan Field went under construction. But the Wildcats were still shut out in Big Ten play there last season, losing to Indiana and Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan by an average of 18.5 points.

Northwestern’s first two home games look to be locks. Unless the sky falls, the Wildcats will beat Western Illinois and lose to No. 7 Oregon, the reigning Big Ten champion. The first real opportunity they have to break out and win a Big Ten game on campus is at the end of September, against UCLA.

Both teams have a bye the week before, and the Bruins face a lengthy, two-time-zone trip from Los Angeles. If the Wildcats can get this game, it completely opens up their home slate for the type of season they had in 2023, when dominance in Evanston propelled them to a bowl game.

If the Wildcats can beat the Bruins, then notch an expected Homecoming win over Louisiana-Monroe and handle business against struggling Purdue, they could be sitting at 4-1 after their first five home games, matching the trajectory of 2023.

If they can’t knock off UCLA, though, things could start to snowball, like they did in 2024.

Will the Wildcats finally win at Wrigley?

“It’s fun to talk about playing at Wrigley but, dang it, I want to talk about winning at Wrigley,” head coach David Braun said at Big Ten Media Days last month.

The Wildcats are 0-5 this century at the Friendly Confines — and 0-6 all-time when you include their 1923 loss to Illinois. They lost again to Illinois in 2010, and then Purdue in 2021. Braun came painfully close to snapping the streak in 2023, but Iowa’s Drew Stevens drilled a 52-yard field goal with 14 seconds left to hand the Wildcats a 10-7 defeat.

Both of their games at Wrigley in 2024 had flashes of excitement. The Wildcats led eventual national champion Ohio State 7-0 early in the second quarter, and they took a 10-7 lead into the second quarter against a ranked Illinois squad. But both games ended up as double-digit losses.

There are two more Big Ten games on Clark & Addison this season, against Michigan and Minnesota, and they may be the last times the Wildcats play at Wrigley for a while. Northwestern has sung the praises of the Chicago Cubs organization for accommodating them, but with the new Ryan Field opening next season, they will be loathe to convert any true home games into neutral sites, even if the “neutral” site is sweet home Chicago.

That means that the Wildcats will have two more shots to crack the goose egg. Northwestern hasn’t beaten Michigan since 2011, and their last matchup was an ignominious 50-6 loss at Ann Arbor in 2024. Neither mark generates confidence, and you can bet that the Michigan alumni base in Chicago is salivating at the chance to pack Wrigley for a football game, much like the Buckeye fans did last season.

The better chance for the Cats is versus the Gophers, a team they beat the last time they played, 37-34, in an overtime classic at Ryan Field in 2023 to give Braun his first Big Ten win.

If they can knock off P.J. Fleck‘s team twice in a row they can snap a 103-year losing streak at Wrigley. And if they can win their four manageable home games at Martin Stadium on top of it, the Wildcats could reestablish themselves as a formidable home team on their way to a bowl game.