Over the weekend, after Northwestern beat Duke in Durham and Stanford — whom Northwestern beat in Week 1 — beat USC, people started realizing that Northwestern might be legit. The polls reflected those realizations: Northwestern is in the top 20 in both the AP Poll (17) and the USA Today/ Amway Coaches Poll (19).
For two experts, the 19-10 victory in Durham meant far more to the bowl projections than the 41-0 pounding of Eastern Illinois in Week 2 did.
Still, it remains quite early in the season, and obviously much can and will change between now and the end of the season, but currently the projections have the Wildcats in some major bowls against some major opponents.