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Purdue will face a defending national champion on its home field in 2023. No, the Boilers are not going to Athens, Georgia. Notice that I said a national champion and not the national champion. For much of college football history national championships were a vibe. Purdue even has one from 1931 (meaning it has a claimed football and men’s basketball championship from the same school year). It could also claim one from 1943, as Notre Dame was the “champion” according to many, but it lost one game to Great Lakes Navy. Purdue was undefeated and happened to beat Great Lakes Navy that year, and it was just before the Purdue-Notre Dame running series got going, so the Boilermakers did not play the Fighting Irish.
Because claimed national championships in football are more based on feeling, why not base them on location? I believe that if a college football game is played in another country the winner of said game should be able to claim that country’s national championship. That means former Purdue coach Jeff Brohm has a national championship from winning the 2014 Bahamas Bowl. Stanford is the 2017 Australian champion for beating Rice in Sydney.
It also means that, despite going 1-11 last year, you can consider Northwestern the 2022 Ireland national champions in college football.
That long-winded introduction is probably the best shine one can put on the Wildcats right now. After reaching the Big Ten championship game during the COVID year it has been a disaster. Northwestern has not won a game on American soil in nearly two years, a streak of 17 games. Then you have the events of the past week. The firing of Pat Fitzgerald and the turmoil within the program certainly won’t do anything to help a team coming off of a 1-11 year. This is a team seven and a half weeks away from kickoff and it is not currently known who the head coach will be. Defensive coordinator Dave Braun is currently “managing” the program as they search for an interim.
Needless to say, things are in flux in Evanston.
