American college football season
The 2011 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University during the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season . Pat Fitzgerald , in his sixth season at Northwestern, was the team's head coach. The Wildcats home games were played at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois . They are members of the Legends Division of the Big Ten Conference . They finished the season 6–7, 3–4 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place in the Legends Division. They were invited to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas where they were defeated by Texas A&M 22–33.
Preseason
Conference divisions
Starting in 2011, the Big Ten Conference created two divisions, "Legends" and "Leaders", following the University of Nebraska 's membership into the conference. Northwestern was placed in the "Legends" division, with the University of Iowa , the University of Michigan , Michigan State University , the University of Minnesota and the University of Nebraska joining them.[2]
Schedule
The schedule is as follows:[3]
Date Time Opponent Site TV Result Attendance September 3 11:00 am at Boston College * ESPNU W 24–1737,561[4]
September 10 2:30 pm Eastern Illinois * BTN W 42–2128,042[5]
September 17 2:30 pm at Army * CBSSN L 14–2135,784[6]
October 1 11:00 am at No. 22 Illinois ESPN2 L 35–3853,243[7]
October 8 6:00 pm No. 11 Michigan Ryan Field Evanston, Illinois (rivalry ) BTN L 24–4247,330[8]
October 15 6:00 pm at Iowa BTN L 31–4170,585[9]
October 22 6:00 pm No. 22 Penn State Ryan Field Evanston, Illinois BTN L 24–3440,004[10]
October 29 11:00 am at Indiana BTN W 59–3839,239[11]
November 5 2:30 pm at No. 9 Nebraska BTN W 28–2585,115[12]
November 12 11:00 am Rice * Ryan Field Evanston, Illinois BTN W 28–626,886[13]
November 19 11:00 am Minnesota Ryan Field Evanston, Illinois BTN W 28–1326,215[14]
November 26 11:00 am No. 10 Michigan State Ryan Field Evanston, Illinois BTN L 17–3132,172[15]
December 31 11:00 am Texas A&M * ESPN L 22–3368,395[16]
*Non-conference game HomecomingRankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time