The Northwestern Wildcats finished last season with a record of 1-11 overall and a record of 1-8 in the Big Ten which led to a last-place finish in the West Division of the Big Ten and the Wildcats missing a bowl game for the 2^nd consecutive season. After 17 seasons as head coach for the Northwestern Wildcats, Pat Fitzgerald was fired as head coach in July due to hazing allegations that happened on the football team. 

David Braun will serve as the interim head coach for the Wildcats this season, Braun was serving as the Defensive Coordinator for Northwestern before the firing of Pat Fitzgerald. This season, the Northwestern Wildcats enter the season with an over/under win total of 3 wins which means the Wildcats are projected to miss a bowl game for the 3^rd consecutive year and based on Vegas odds are projected to be the 2^nd worst team in the Big Ten Conference, projected to only finish better than the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights finished the 2022 college football season with a record of 4-8 overall and a record of 1-8 in the Big Ten Conference which led to a last-place finish in the Big Ten West and the Scarlet Knights missing a bowl game after being bowl-eligible in 2021. Rutgers will have a new Offensive Coordinator this season after the hiring of Kirk Ciarrocca who recently served as the Offensive Coordinator for the Minnesota Golden Gophers last year. 

This season, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights enter the season with an over/under win total of 4 wins and based on Vegas odds are projected to be the worst team in the Big Ten Conference.

BookMaker has the Rutgers Scarlet Knights listed as 6.5-point favorites at home against the Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday in week 1 of the college football season. These teams have played each other two times before this season with Northwestern winning both games by an average score of 19.5 to 11 with both teams going 1-1 ATS in those contests and the most recent game occurring in 2021 which resulted in a win for the Northwestern Wildcats by a score of 21-7 and a 2.5-point cover as an underdog. 

Northwestern finished last season with a record of 5-7 ATS overall, 3-2 ATS on the road, 5-4 ATS as an underdog, and 5-4 ATS in conference games while Rutgers finished 5-6-1 ATS overall, 3-3 ATS at home, 2-1 ATS as a favorite, and 3-5-1 ATS in conference games.

Neither team is projected to have a good season as Northwestern and Rutgers are projected to be the two worst teams in the Big Ten and finish below .500 as Northwestern enters the season with an over/under win total of 3 wins and Rutgers enters with an over/under win total of 4 wins. 

When neither team has a clear advantage in a matchup it is always better to take the points and with Northwestern having been the better team in the series going 2-0 all-time I look for that to be the case here which is why I am buying the .5 point and taking the Northwestern Wildcats +7 on BookMaker for this matchup on Sunday.