And so this is it, the end of the road for the 2025 regular season, on a weekend when all of Sweep Country is stuffed to the gills and most of us (but nor me, thankfully) are under some sort of winter weather advisory. It has been a disappointing season for literally every team in our purview; let us all go off to our mid-tier bowl games and turn our thoughts to basketball. But not before we pick the big rivalry games, of course!
Northwestern at Illinois (6:30 pm, FOX): Northwestern wound up performing significantly better than I thought it would this season; it's bowl-eligible and thus bowl-going. Illinois probably should have expected a slight return to earth after its great season last year, simply because the schedule was a lot tougher this year. I've not seen Northwestern play but I have seen the Illini; they are a solid but unexceptional team with a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot. This game will probably be played in a cold, miserable rain, so the team that makes the last mistake will probably lose. I think I like Illinois here, but I wouldn't be shocked if Northwestern took it. Illinois 24, Northwestern 20.
Wisconsin at Minnesota (2:30 pm, FS1): Gonna guess Minnesota would have preferred playing this game back in October when Wisconsin was still The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. This game is literally meaningless as Minnesota has already won 6 while Wisconsin has already lost 7. (This would be a dangerous observation to make if anyone young actually read this column.) I think Luke Fickell has more to play for here, with a need to show that the bad stretch this season doesn't define him as a coach. Like I said before the year started, I don't think Barry Alvarez himself could have done much better than 6-6 against the Badgers' 2025 schedule. And Minnesota still can't really play offense. Wisconsin 20, Minnesota 17.
Iowa at Nebraska (11 am Friday, CBS/Paramount+): I'm not sure how many people thought both teams would come into this game with identical records. Husker faithful were confident that This Is Our Year, but the 'Skers couldn't quite break the rock. Iowa fans varied between "this team could make the playoff" and "this is a 4-8 football team" well into September, and neither faction was right. I don't love how dramatic the Michigan State game was for the Hawks, but after losing four close games, it was nice to win one, and to slay the dragon of "Kirk Ferentz teams can't come back in the fourth quarter." This may sound heretical to a lot of people, but I think Kirk is a better coach than Matt Rhule, and I think Iowa wins this game. Then they need to beat it on home before the snow flies. Iowa 17, Nebraska 16.
I am not going to pick any extra games this week, it's a holiday weekend and I just don't want to.
Photo credit: “DC Snowstorm Feb” by Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0
Like so many Hawkeye seasons, it was hard to tell this year whether they were underperforming or playing just exactly to their level. They won the games they were supposed to, and never had quite enough to pull off an upset. A few weeks back I bet my wife they would finish the season ranked in the top 25. Was the convincing Nebraska win enough to get them there, or did they squander too many opportunities?
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