Are the Wildcats a sleeping giant in college football? The program seems to believe so.
Northwestern capped off its 7-6 season last Friday with a dominant 34-7 win over Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. While celebration ensued at Ford Field and cheers rang through the halls of the Detroit Lions' stadium, there was still a feeling of missed opportunity in David Braun's voice as he concluded the season with his post-game press conference.
"I'll be the first one to tell you, yeah [we went] 7-6, I feel like we should've won nine or 10 games this year," Braun said. "Just because we won a bowl game doesn't mean everything is just perfect within the program. If we're going to talk about there being a goal of winning the Big Ten Championship and playing in the CFP... And guys, if we're going to play in the College Football Playoff, what should our ultimate goal be? To go win a national championship! We're not handing out participation awards. It's my job to go through and evaluate whether we're operating at that standard or not."
Northwestern was projected to win 3.5 games and finish 16th in the Big Ten by most preseason metrics. Going 7-6 with such low expectations would be satisfactory for many other teams in the nation, but not for Braun's Wildcats, who have repeatedly emphasized their lofty goals.
At the Big Ten Media Day in late July, Braun spoke about chasing down what he said was the "best team in college football" in Ohio State. The historical comparison is almost laughable — the Buckeyes are one of the most storied brands in college football and have national championship victories in each of the past three decades, while Northwestern has literally lost more games than any other program in the FBS.
Yet, when the Wildcats took the field this season, they proved they could be in that echelon of the Big Ten. Northwestern upset a highly-touted Penn State team on the road and was a Dominic Zvada field goal as time expired away from defeating Michigan. The 'Cats went down to the wire in narrow losses to Nebraska and Illinois — both of which were widely believed to be superior to Northwestern — and beat a Minnesota team that finished with eight wins.
By all accounts, Northwestern had a successful 2025 season, but Braun and the Wildcats are not satisfied with being a feisty underdog team that can occasionally upset the Big Ten powers. The 'Cats are intent on following the Indiana model of taking the conference by force, never looking back and achieving things that only the program believed were possible.
Northwestern's recent moves prove that to be so. Between investing in a new $850 million football stadium, hiring Christian Sarkisian as the general manager, adapting the winter academic enrollment period to accomodate the winter transfer portal window, fully diving into NIL/revenue share and hiring National Champion offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the Wildcats' processes are reflecting some of the sport's most prominent programs in ways they never have before.
All of this has created the perfect storm, which has left Braun asking, "Why not us?" The moves that Northwestern has made as a program aren't just with the idea of building upon the previous years and having seasons that amount to "good for Northwestern standards," but an overall pursuit of Big Ten and National Championships.
It's fair to be skeptical of whether or not these steps will actually result in title contention. After all, Northwestern's No. 1 obstacle of academic admissions remains, and that's never going to change. But academic success and football success are not mutually exclusive, as fellow U.S. News top 20 universities Duke, Michigan, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt have proven.
Regardless of whether the on-field success eventually mentions those aforementioned schools, Northwestern is at least trying to disrupt the status quo, and the possibilities that could come from that are endless.