The Big Ten West is a mess, and no one should be more thankful than the Northwestern Wildcats. Despite brutal non-conference performances to Duke and Akron, Pat Fitzgerald’s team has performed best in conference play and controls its destiny in the West. This would not be possible if NU was in the East division, where it would have to play a tougher base schedule each year. While NU had to play Michigan and Michigan State this season, it does not have to compete with those teams in the Big Ten standings.
As it currently stands, and you probably have it memorized if you follow any form of Northwestern Athletics on social media, Northwestern stands atop the B1G West with a 3-1 conference record.