For the past several seasons, Northwestern’s seasons have been pretty clearly defined by a single game or even a small set of games. The 2013 Wildcats were defined by Ohio State, a brutal loss in the program’s most important game of the millennium, and the fallout after. In 2014, one could point to Northwestern’s shocking win over Notre Dame in South Bend — surely the highlight of the year by a long shot — but the Wildcats were defined by its season-ending loss to Illinois. A combination of bad luck and underachievement led that team to a second straight bowl-less campaign.
Northwestern’s 2016 season will be defined by its bowl game
