When its home opener against Navy last weekend was canceled, Northwestern faced the prospect of a 10-game schedule that could harm both its ranking and its bowl prospects. But Tuesday the school said it would replace that game with one against Bowling Green at 11 a.m. Nov. 17 at Ryan Field.
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That is just five days before the Wildcats close their regular season on Thanksgiving at Illinois.
Coach Randy Walker had said Monday he did not want to play on that Saturday.
“In a perfect world, I probably wouldn’t have done that,” he said Tuesday night. “But this isn’t a perfect world and my dislike for the situation was overcome by I wanted to play 11.”
Bowling Green (2-0) is a member of the Mid-American Conference, whose teams regularly challenge and occasionally beat those from bigger leagues. But on that same Saturday, Illinois faces Ohio State, and that helped convince Walker to change his mind about playing that afternoon.