Pat Fitzgerald has molded Northwestern into a perennial bowl team.

The Wildcats have reached the postseason for the past four seasons and won their last three bowl games. Northwestern hopes to build upon last season’s impressive Big Ten Championship appearance and Holiday Bowl victory by going even further this year. The bowl experts, however, are not expecting that. Here is where the analysts project Northwestern to be playing during winter break:

The Athletic - Quick Lane Bowl vs Western Michigan (Stewart Mandel)

The Quick Lane Bowl is not a prestigious New Year’s Bowl game (the game is played on December 26th) and would likely mean that NU disappointed a bit, winning only five or six regular season games*.